By Shapiro                                              S.B. No. 41
       74R1454 DD-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the competency of a child to testify in a criminal
    1-3  case.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Chapter 38, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-6  amended by adding Article 38.070 to read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 38.070.  COMPETENCY OF CHILD TO TESTIFY.  A child is
    1-8  presumed competent to be a witness in a criminal proceeding even if
    1-9  the child does not appear to possess sufficient intellect to relate
   1-10  transactions with respect to which the child is interrogated.
   1-11        SECTION 2.  Under the terms of Section 22.109(b), Government
   1-12  Code, Rule 601(a)(2), Texas Rules of Criminal Evidence, as it
   1-13  pertains to the incompetency of a child to testify in a criminal
   1-14  proceeding, is disapproved.
   1-15        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-16        SECTION 4.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   1-17  only to prosecution for an offense committed on or after the
   1-18  effective date of this Act.  For purposes of this section, an
   1-19  offense is committed before the effective date of this Act if any
   1-20  element of the offense occurs before that date.
   1-21        (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
   1-22  Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
   1-23  and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   1-24        SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-1  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-2  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-3  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-4  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.