By Place                                              H.B. No. 1394
       74R4608 NSC-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to pleas entered by a minor in justice or municipal court.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Chapter 45, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-5  amended by adding Article 45.331 to read as follows:
    1-6        Art. 45.331.  PLEA BY MINOR.  (a)  A plea of a defendant who
    1-7  is younger than 18 years of age and who has not had the
    1-8  disabilities of minority removed must be made in open court with
    1-9  the defendant's parent, guardian, or managing conservator present.
   1-10        (b)  If the defendant resides in a county other than the
   1-11  county in which the alleged offense occurred, the defendant may,
   1-12  with leave of the court, enter the plea, including a plea under
   1-13  Article 45.55, before a justice in the county in which the
   1-14  defendant resides.
   1-15        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-16        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-17  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-18  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-19  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-20  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.