By Hightower                                          H.B. No. 1753
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the punishment of the offense of assault committed
    1-3  against a public servant.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 22.01, Penal Code, is amended by amending
    1-6  Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
    1-7        (b)  An offense under Subsection (a)(1) is a Class A
    1-8  misdemeanor, except that the offense is a felony of the third
    1-9  degree if the offense is committed against a person the actor knows
   1-10  is a public servant while the public servant is lawfully
   1-11  discharging an official duty, or in retaliation or on account of an
   1-12  exercise of official power or performance of an official duty as a
   1-13  public servant.
   1-14        (d)  For purposes of Subsection (b), the actor is presumed to
   1-15  have known the person assaulted was a public servant if the person
   1-16  was wearing a distinctive uniform or badge indicating the person's
   1-17  employment as a public servant.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   1-19  only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
   1-20  Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
   1-21  the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
   1-22  before the effective date.
   1-23        (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
   1-24  Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
    2-1  and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
    2-2        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
    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.