By:  Lucio                                             S.B. No. 599
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the exoneration and forfeiture of bail.
    1-2        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-3        SECTION 1.  Article 22.13, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-4  amended to read as follows:
    1-5        Art. 22.13.  CAUSES WHICH WILL EXONERATE.  The following
    1-6  causes, and no other, will exonerate the defendant and his
    1-7  sureties, if any, from liability upon the forfeiture taken:
    1-8              1.  That the bond is, for any cause, not a valid and
    1-9  binding undertaking in law.  If it be valid and binding as to the
   1-10  principal, and one or more of his sureties, if any, they shall not
   1-11  be exonerated from liability because of its being invalid and not
   1-12  binding as to another surety or sureties, if any.  If it be invalid
   1-13  and not binding as to the principal, each of the sureties, if any,
   1-14  shall be exonerated from liability.  If it be valid and binding as
   1-15  to the principal, but not so as to the sureties, if any, the
   1-16  principal shall not be exonerated, but the sureties, if any, shall
   1-17  be.
   1-18              2.  The death of the principal before the forfeiture
   1-19  was taken.
   1-20              3.  The sickness of the principal or some
   1-21  uncontrollable circumstance which prevented his appearance at
   1-22  court, and it must, in every such case, be shown that his failure
   1-23  to appear arose from no fault on his part.  The causes mentioned in
    2-1  this subdivision shall not be deemed sufficient to exonerate the
    2-2  principal and his sureties, if any, unless such principal appear
    2-3  before final judgment on the bond to answer the accusation against
    2-4  him, or show sufficient cause for not so appearing.
    2-5              4.  Failure to present an indictment or information at
    2-6  the first term of the court which may be held after the principal
    2-7  has been admitted to bail, in case where the party was bound over
    2-8  before indictment or information, and the prosecution has not been
    2-9  continued by order of the court.
   2-10              5.  Failure by the court to issue a capias or warrant
   2-11  for the principal within a reasonable time after entering a
   2-12  declaration of forfeiture and after a written motion has been
   2-13  presented by the surety and the state or by the surety alone if the
   2-14  state refuses to join the motion.
   2-15        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-16  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-17  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-18  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-19  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-20  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-21  passage, and it is so enacted.