By Thompson                                           H.B. No. 2095
       74R4544 GWK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the punishment for contempt of certain persons who fail
    1-3  to respond to a jury summons.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Article 45.25, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 45.25.  Jury summoned.  If the accused does not waive a
    1-8  trial by jury, the justice shall issue a writ commanding the proper
    1-9  officer to summon forthwith a venire from which six qualified
   1-10  persons shall be selected to serve as jurors in the case.  Said
   1-11  jurors when so summoned shall remain in attendance as jurors in all
   1-12  cases that may come up for hearing until discharged by the court.
   1-13  Any person so summoned who fails to attend may be punished <fined
   1-14  not exceeding $20> for contempt by imposition of a fine of not less
   1-15  than $100 or more than $1,000.
   1-16        SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
   1-17  to a person who on or after the effective date of this Act fails to
   1-18  respond to a jury summons.  Failure to respond to a jury summons
   1-19  before the effective date of this Act is covered by the law in
   1-20  effect at the time of the failure, and the former law is continued
   1-21  in effect for that purpose.
   1-22        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-23        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-24  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-1  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-2  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-3  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.