By:  Brown                                             S.B. No. 110
       73R1101 DRH-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the peremptory challenge of a juror in a criminal case
    1-3  based on an unconstitutional purpose.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Article 35.261, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 35.261.  PEREMPTORY CHALLENGES BASED ON UNCONSTITUTIONAL
    1-8  PURPOSE <RACE  PROHIBITED>.  (a)  After the parties have delivered
    1-9  their lists to the clerk under Article 35.26 of this code and
   1-10  before the court has impanelled the jury, the attorney representing
   1-11  the state or the defendant may request the court to disallow a
   1-12  peremptory challenge <dismiss the array and call a new array in the
   1-13  case>.  The court shall grant the motion of the moving party <of a
   1-14  defendant> for disallowing the use of a peremptory challenge
   1-15  <dismissal of the array> if the court determines <that the
   1-16  defendant is a member of an identifiable racial group,> that the
   1-17  opposing party <attorney representing the state> exercised the
   1-18  peremptory challenge <challenges> for a purpose that violates the
   1-19  United States or Texas Constitution <the purpose of excluding
   1-20  persons from the jury on the basis of their race>, and that the
   1-21  moving party <defendant> has offered evidence of relevant facts
   1-22  that tends <tend> to show that the challenge <challenges> made by
   1-23  the opposing party was <attorney representing the state were> made
   1-24  for an unconstitutional purpose <reasons based on race>.  If the
    2-1  moving party <defendant> establishes a prima facie case, the burden
    2-2  then shifts to the opposing party <attorney representing the state>
    2-3  to give a permissible <racially neutral> explanation for the
    2-4  challenge <challenges>.  The burden of persuasion remains with the
    2-5  moving party <defendant> to establish that the challenge was made
    2-6  for an unconstitutional purpose <purposeful discrimination>.
    2-7        (b)  If the court determines that the opposing party
    2-8  <attorney representing the state> challenged a prospective juror
    2-9  <jurors> on the basis of a purpose that violates the United States
   2-10  or Texas Constitution <race>, the court shall disallow the
   2-11  peremptory challenge <call a new array in the case>.
   2-12        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   2-13  only to a criminal trial that commences on or after the effective
   2-14  date of this Act.
   2-15        (b)  A trial that commences before the effective date of this
   2-16  Act is covered by the law in effect when the trial commenced, and
   2-17  the former law is continued in effect for this purpose.
   2-18        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-19        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-21  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
   2-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.