By Brady                                              H.B. No. 2817
       74R211 GWK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the procedures for determining eligibility for parole
    1-3  of a defendant serving a life sentence after conviction of a
    1-4  capital felony.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Notwithstanding Section 6.04, Chapter 900, Acts
    1-7  of the 73rd Legislature, Regular Session, 1993, the Board of
    1-8  Pardons and Paroles may grant parole to any person convicted of a
    1-9  capital felony only on a two-thirds vote of the entire membership
   1-10  of the board, as required by Section 7(g), Article 42.18, Code of
   1-11  Criminal Procedure, regardless of whether the person was sentenced
   1-12  for an offense committed before, on, or after September 1, 1993.
   1-13        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-14  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-15  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-16  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-17  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-18  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-19  passage, and it is so enacted.