By Place                                              H.B. No. 1749
       74R4725 DD-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the retrial of a case in a justice or municipal court
    1-3  after a mistrial has been declared.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Article 45.40, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 45.40.  MISTRIAL.  A jury shall be discharged if it
    1-8  fails to agree to a verdict after being kept together a reasonable
    1-9  time.  If a jury is discharged without having rendered a verdict,
   1-10  the cause may be tried again during the same term or during another
   1-11  term.  <If there be time left on the same day, another jury may be
   1-12  impaneled to try the cause, or the justice may adjourn for not more
   1-13  than two days and again impanel a jury to try such cause.>
   1-14        SECTION 2.  Chapter 30, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is
   1-15  amended by adding Section 30.007 to read as follows:
   1-16        Sec. 30.007.  MISTRIAL IN JUSTICE COURT OR MUNICIPAL COURT.
   1-17  If a jury in a trial in a justice court or a municipal court is
   1-18  discharged without having rendered a verdict, the cause may be
   1-19  tried again as soon as practicable.
   1-20        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-21  applies to a trial in a justice or municipal court that begins on
   1-22  or after that date.  For purposes of this section, a trial begins
   1-23  on the date a jury is impaneled.  A trial that begins in a justice
   1-24  or municipal court before the effective date of this Act is
    2-1  governed by the law in effect when the trial began, and that law is
    2-2  continued in effect for that purpose.
    2-3        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-4  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-5  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-6  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-7  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.