By:  Turner                                            S.B. No. 818
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the punishment as a capital offense of certain murders
    1-2  committed by individuals incarcerated in penal institutions.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 19.03, Penal Code, is amended by amending
    1-5  Subsection (a) and by adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
    1-6        (a)  A person commits an offense if he commits murder as
    1-7  defined under Section 19.02(a)(1) of this code and:
    1-8              (1)  the person murders a peace officer or fireman who
    1-9  is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the
   1-10  person knows is a peace officer or fireman;
   1-11              (2)  the person intentionally commits the murder in the
   1-12  course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, burglary,
   1-13  robbery, aggravated sexual assault, or arson;
   1-14              (3)  the person commits the murder for remuneration or
   1-15  the promise of remuneration or employs another to commit the murder
   1-16  for remuneration or the promise of remuneration;
   1-17              (4)  the person commits the murder while escaping or
   1-18  attempting to escape from a penal institution;
   1-19              (5)  the person, while incarcerated in a penal
   1-20  institution, murders another:
   1-21                    (A)  who is employed in the operation of the
   1-22  penal institution; or
   1-23                    (B)  with the intent to establish, maintain, or
   1-24  participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination;
    2-1              (6)  the person, while serving a sentence of life
    2-2  imprisonment or a term of 99 years for the commission of any
    2-3  offense listed in Section 3g(a)(1), Article 42.12, Code of Criminal
    2-4  Procedure, murders another; or
    2-5              (7)  the person murders more than one person:
    2-6                    (A)  during the same criminal transaction; or
    2-7                    (B)  during different criminal transactions but
    2-8  the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of
    2-9  conduct.
   2-10        (d)  In this section, "combination" and "profits" have the
   2-11  meanings assigned by Section 71.01 of this code.
   2-12        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   2-13  only to a defendant convicted of an offense committed on or after
   2-14  the effective date of this Act.  For purposes of this section, an
   2-15  offense is committed before the effective date of this Act if any
   2-16  element of the offense occurs before the effective date.
   2-17        (b)  A defendant convicted of an offense committed before the
   2-18  effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the
   2-19  offense was committed, and the former law is continued in effect
   2-20  for that purpose.
   2-21        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1993.
   2-22        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-25  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-26  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.