74R12709 GWK-D
          By Puente                                             H.B. No. 3044
          Substitute the following for H.B. No. 3044:
          By Solis                                          C.S.H.B. No. 3044
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to informing the jury in a criminal case of the costs of
    1-3  sanctions available to the jury.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 23.202, Government Code, is amended by
    1-6  amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (c) to read as
    1-7  follows:
    1-8        (a)  The state bar shall publish a uniform jury handbook
    1-9  that:
   1-10              (1)  informs jurors in lay terminology of the duties
   1-11  and responsibilities of a juror;
   1-12              (2)  informs jurors of the relative monthly costs to
   1-13  the state for imposing confinement as punishment on conviction of a
   1-14  felony;
   1-15              (3)  explains basic trial procedures and legal
   1-16  terminology; and
   1-17              (4) <(3)>  provides other practical information
   1-18  relating to jury service.
   1-19        (c)  The state bar, after consultation with the comptroller's
   1-20  office, the Legislative Budget Board, and the Criminal Justice
   1-21  Policy Council, shall determine the average monthly costs of
   1-22  confining an individual convicted of a felony punishable by
   1-23  confinement in the institutional division of the Texas Department
    2-1  of Criminal Justice.
    2-2        SECTION 2.  The state bar shall include information on the
    2-3  costs of punishment in criminal cases, as required by Section
    2-4  23.202, Government Code, as amended by this Act, in the first
    2-5  annual update of the uniform jury handbook that is completed by the
    2-6  state bar after September 1, 1995.
    2-7        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-8  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-9  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-10  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-11  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-12  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-13  passage, and it is so enacted.