1-1 By: Brown S.B. No. 38
1-2 (In the Senate - Filed November 14, 1994; January 10, 1995,
1-3 read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
1-4 March 21, 1995, reported favorably, as amended, by the following
1-5 vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0; March 21, 1995, sent to printer.)
1-6 COMMITTEE AMENDMENT NO. 1 By: Brown
1-7 Amend S.B. No. 38 as follows:
1-8 (1) In Section 1, Article 43.20, Code of Criminal Procedure
1-9 (page 1, line 19; committee printing page 1, line 31) after "56.01
1-10 of this code," and before the word "shall" insert "not exceeding
1-11 five in number"
1-12 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-13 AN ACT
1-14 relating to individuals permitted to attend the execution of a
1-15 capital felon.
1-16 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-17 SECTION 1. Article 43.20, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-18 amended to read as follows:
1-19 Art. 43.20. PRESENT AT EXECUTION. The following persons may
1-20 be present at the execution: the executioner, and such persons as
1-21 may be necessary to assist him in conducting the execution,<;> the
1-22 members of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice <Board of Directors
1-23 of the Department of Corrections>, two physicians, including the
1-24 prison physician, the spiritual advisor of the condemned, the
1-25 chaplains of the institutional division of the Texas Department of
1-26 Criminal Justice <Department of Corrections>, the county judge and
1-27 sheriff of the county in which the unit of the institutional
1-28 division <Department of Corrections> is situated, <and> any of the
1-29 relatives or friends of the condemned person that he may request,
1-30 not exceeding five in number, and close relatives of the deceased
1-31 victim, as defined by Article 56.01 of this code, shall be
1-32 admitted. No convict shall be permitted by the prison authorities
1-33 to witness the execution.
1-34 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
1-35 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-36 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-37 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-38 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-39 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-40 passage, and it is so enacted.
1-41 * * * * *