By Nelson                                              S.B. No. 203
       74R319 GWK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the availability to certain prisoners of release from
    1-3  the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal
    1-4  Justice on parole or to mandatory supervision.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Article 42.18, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-7  repealed.
    1-8        SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect January 1, 1996, but
    1-9  only if the constitutional amendment proposed by __J.R. No. ____,
   1-10  74th Legislature, Regular Session, 1995, takes effect.  If that
   1-11  amendment is not approved by the voters, this Act has no effect.
   1-12        (b)  The change in law made by this Act applies only for an
   1-13  offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.  For
   1-14  purposes of this section, an offense is committed before the
   1-15  effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
   1-16  before the effective date.
   1-17        (c)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
   1-18  Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
   1-19  and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   1-20        SECTION 3.  The Board of Pardons and Paroles shall continue
   1-21  to perform the duties required under Article 42.18, Code of
   1-22  Criminal Procedure, until those duties with regard to each person
   1-23  convicted of an offense committed before January 1, 1996, are
   1-24  completed.  On the day on which the final duty is completed, the
    2-1  board shall send written notice of the completion of its duties to
    2-2  the governor and to the secretary of state for publication in the
    2-3  Texas Register.  On publication of the notice in the Texas
    2-4  Register, the board's existence terminates.
    2-5        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-6  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-7  emergency   and   an   imperative   public   necessity   that   the
    2-8  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-9  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.