1-1 By: Place (Senate Sponsor - Wentworth) H.B. No. 1204
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House March 15, 1995;
1-3 March 16, 1995, read first time and referred to Committee on
1-4 Criminal Justice; May 11, 1995, reported favorably by the following
1-5 vote: Yeas 5, Nays 1; May 11, 1995, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to the punishment for contempt of certain persons who fail
1-9 to respond to a jury summons.
1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11 SECTION 1. Article 45.25, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-12 amended to read as follows:
1-13 Art. 45.25. Jury summoned. If the accused does not waive a
1-14 trial by jury, the justice shall issue a writ commanding the proper
1-15 officer to summon forthwith a venire from which six qualified
1-16 persons shall be selected to serve as jurors in the case. Said
1-17 jurors when so summoned shall remain in attendance as jurors in all
1-18 cases that may come up for hearing until discharged by the court.
1-19 Any person so summoned who fails to attend may be fined not
1-20 exceeding $100 <$20> for contempt.
1-21 SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only
1-22 to a person who on or after the effective date of this Act fails to
1-23 respond to a jury summons. Failure to respond to a jury summons
1-24 before the effective date of this Act is covered by the law in
1-25 effect at the time of the failure, and the former law is continued
1-26 in effect for that purpose.
1-27 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
1-28 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
1-29 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-30 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-31 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-32 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-33 * * * * *