By Wilson H.B. No. 65
74R1870 GWK-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to capital murder by a peace officer, jailer, or guard of
1-3 a person in custody.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 19.03(a), Penal Code, is amended to read
1-6 as follows:
1-7 (a) A person commits an offense if he commits murder as
1-8 defined under Section 19.02(b)(1) and:
1-9 (1) the person murders a peace officer or fireman who
1-10 is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the
1-11 person knows is a peace officer or fireman;
1-12 (2) the person intentionally commits the murder in the
1-13 course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, burglary,
1-14 robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, or obstruction or
1-15 retaliation;
1-16 (3) the person commits the murder for remuneration or
1-17 the promise of remuneration or employs another to commit the murder
1-18 for remuneration or the promise of remuneration;
1-19 (4) the person commits the murder while escaping or
1-20 attempting to escape from a penal institution;
1-21 (5) the person, while incarcerated in a penal
1-22 institution, murders another:
1-23 (A) who is employed in the operation of the
1-24 penal institution; or
2-1 (B) with the intent to establish, maintain, or
2-2 participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination;
2-3 (6) the person:
2-4 (A) while incarcerated for an offense under this
2-5 section or Section 19.02, murders another; or
2-6 (B) while serving a sentence of life
2-7 imprisonment or a term of 99 years for an offense under Section
2-8 20.04, 22.021, or 29.03, murders another;
2-9 (7) the person murders more than one person:
2-10 (A) during the same criminal transaction; or
2-11 (B) during different criminal transactions but
2-12 the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of
2-13 conduct; <or>
2-14 (8) the person murders an individual under six years
2-15 of age; or
2-16 (9) the person:
2-17 (A) is a jailer or guard employed at a municipal
2-18 or county jail, by the institutional division or state jail
2-19 division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, or by a
2-20 correctional facility authorized by Subchapter F, Chapter 351,
2-21 Local Government Code, or Chapter 495, Government Code, or is a
2-22 peace officer; and
2-23 (B) murders another who at the time of the
2-24 offense is in the peace officer's, jailer's, or guard's custody.
2-25 SECTION 2. (a) The change in law made by this Act applies
2-26 only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
2-27 Act. For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
3-1 the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
3-2 before the effective date.
3-3 (b) An offense committed before the effective date of this
3-4 Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
3-5 and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
3-6 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
3-7 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-8 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-9 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-10 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-11 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.