By:  Moncrief, et al.                                  S.B. No. 124
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to notification of a victim of the offense of stalking
    1-2  about the release on bail of the defendant in the case.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Article 17.29, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Art. 17.29.  ACCUSED LIBERATED.  (a)  When the accused has
    1-7  given the required bond, either to the magistrate or the officer
    1-8  having him in custody, he shall at once be set at liberty.
    1-9        (b)  Before releasing on bail a person arrested for an
   1-10  offense under Section 42.07(a)(7), Penal Code, the law enforcement
   1-11  agency holding the person shall make a reasonable attempt to give
   1-12  personal notice of the imminent release to the victim of the
   1-13  alleged offense or to another person designated by the victim to
   1-14  receive the notice.  An attempt by an agency to give notice to the
   1-15  victim or the person designated by the victim at the victim's or
   1-16  person's last known telephone number or address, as shown on the
   1-17  records of the agency, constitutes a reasonable attempt to give
   1-18  notice under this subsection.  If possible, the arresting officer
   1-19  shall collect the address and telephone number of the victim at the
   1-20  time the arrest is made and shall communicate that information to
   1-21  the agency holding the person.
   1-22        (c)  A law enforcement agency or an employee of a law
   1-23  enforcement agency is not liable for damages arising from complying
   1-24  or failing to comply with Subsection (b) of this article.
    2-1        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
    2-2        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-4  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.