By Bailey H.B. No. 285
74R1978 GWK-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to individuals permitted to attend the execution of a
1-3 capital felon.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Article 43.20, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 Art. 43.20. PRESENT AT EXECUTION. The following persons may
1-8 be present at the execution: the executioner, and such persons as
1-9 may be necessary to assist him in conducting the execution,<;> the
1-10 members of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice <Board of Directors
1-11 of the Department of Corrections>, two physicians, including the
1-12 prison physician, the spiritual advisor of the condemned, the
1-13 chaplains of the institutional division of the Texas Department of
1-14 Criminal Justice <Department of Corrections>, the county judge and
1-15 sheriff of the county in which the unit of the institutional
1-16 division <Department of Corrections> is situated, <and> any of the
1-17 relatives or friends of the condemned person that he may request,
1-18 not exceeding five in number, and not more than five close
1-19 relatives of the deceased victim, as defined by Article 56.01,
1-20 shall be admitted. No convict shall be permitted by the prison
1-21 authorities to witness the execution.
1-22 SECTION 2. Article 56.02, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-23 amended by adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:
1-24 (e) A close relative of a deceased victim, following
2-1 conviction of the defendant in the case for capital murder, is
2-2 entitled to:
2-3 (1) notification from the director of the
2-4 institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
2-5 of the date, time, and place of the impending execution of the
2-6 defendant in the case; and
2-7 (2) attend the execution, as provided by Article
2-8 43.20.
2-9 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-10 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-11 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-12 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-13 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-14 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-15 passage, and it is so enacted.