By:  Brown                                            S.B. No. 1288
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the admissibility of evidence at the punishment stage
    1-2  of a criminal trial.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 3, Article 37.07, Code of
    1-5  Criminal Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        (a)  Regardless of the plea and whether the punishment be
    1-7  assessed by the judge or the jury, evidence may<, as permitted by
    1-8  the Rules of Evidence,> be offered by the state and the defendant
    1-9  as to any matter the court deems relevant to sentencing, including
   1-10  but not limited to the prior criminal record of the defendant, his
   1-11  general reputation, <and> his character, an opinion regarding his
   1-12  character, the circumstances of the offense for which he is being
   1-13  tried, and, notwithstanding Rules 404 and 405, Texas Rules of
   1-14  Criminal Evidence, any other evidence of an extraneous crime or bad
   1-15  act that is shown beyond a reasonable doubt to have been committed
   1-16  by the defendant or for which he could be held criminally
   1-17  responsible, regardless of whether he has previously been charged
   1-18  with or finally convicted of the crime or act.  On timely request
   1-19  by the defendant, the state shall provide reasonable notice of its
   1-20  intent to introduce evidence under this article.  The notice shall
   1-21  be given not less than 10 days prior to the beginning of the trial.
   1-22  If the state intends to introduce evidence of extraneous crimes or
   1-23  bad acts which have not resulted in a final conviction in a court
   1-24  of record or a probated or suspended sentence, the notice shall be
    2-1  sufficient if it includes the date and county where the act
    2-2  allegedly occurred and the name of the alleged victim, if any.
    2-3  <The term prior criminal record means a final conviction in a court
    2-4  of record, or a probated or suspended sentence that has occurred
    2-5  prior to trial, or any final conviction material to the offense
    2-6  charged.>  A court may consider as a factor in mitigating
    2-7  punishment the conduct of a defendant while participating in a
    2-8  program under Article 17.40 or 17.42(a) of this code as a condition
    2-9  of release on bail. Additionally, notwithstanding Rule 609(d),
   2-10  Texas Rules of Criminal Evidence, evidence may be offered by the
   2-11  state and the defendant of an adjudication of delinquency based on
   2-12  a violation by the defendant of a penal law of the grade of felony
   2-13  unless:
   2-14              (1)  the adjudication is based on conduct committed
   2-15  more than five years before the commission of the offense for which
   2-16  the person is being tried; and
   2-17              (2)  in the five years preceding the date of the
   2-18  commission of the offense for which the person is being tried, the
   2-19  person did not engage in conduct for which the person has been
   2-20  adjudicated as a delinquent child or a child in need of supervision
   2-21  and did not commit an offense for which the person has been
   2-22  convicted.
   2-23        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-25  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-26  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-27  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    3-1  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    3-2  passage, and it is so enacted.