By Moncrief                                            S.B. No. 144
       74R1570 PEP-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the punishment for certain offenses committed in the
    1-3  presence of a child.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 12, Penal Code, is amended
    1-6  by adding Section 12.48 to read as follows:
    1-7        Sec. 12.48.  OFFENSE COMMITTED IN PRESENCE OF CHILD.  The
    1-8  punishment for an offense under Title 5, other than an offense
    1-9  punishable as a capital felony or a first degree felony, is
   1-10  increased to the punishment prescribed for the next highest
   1-11  category of offense if it is shown on the trial of the offense
   1-12  that:
   1-13              (1)  the offense involved family violence, as defined
   1-14  by Section 71.01, Family Code;
   1-15              (2)  the defendant committed the offense in the
   1-16  presence of a child younger than 17 years of age and was reckless
   1-17  as to the presence of the child; and
   1-18              (3)  the child, had the child reached the age of
   1-19  criminal responsibility, would not have been criminally responsible
   1-20  as a party to the offense.
   1-21        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   1-22  only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
   1-23  Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
   1-24  the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
    2-1  before that date.
    2-2        (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
    2-3  Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
    2-4  and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
    2-5        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
    2-6        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-7  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-8  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-9  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-10  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.