1-1  By:  Moncrief                                          S.B. No. 294
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed January 23, 1995; January 24, 1995,
    1-3  read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
    1-4  April 5, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 7,
    1-5  Nays 0; April 5, 1995, sent to printer.)
    1-6                         A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-7                                AN ACT
    1-8  relating to certain offenses involving combinations or criminal
    1-9  street gangs.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Section 71.01, Penal Code, is amended by adding
   1-12  Subsection (d) to read as follows:
   1-13        (d)  "Criminal street gang" means three or more persons
   1-14  having a common identifying sign or symbol or an identifiable
   1-15  leadership who continuously or regularly associate in the
   1-16  commission of criminal activities.
   1-17        SECTION 2.  Subsection (a), Section 71.02, Penal Code, is
   1-18  amended to read as follows:
   1-19        (a)  A person commits an offense if, with the intent to
   1-20  establish, maintain, or participate in a combination or in the
   1-21  profits of a combination or as a member of a criminal street gang,
   1-22  he commits or conspires to commit one or more of the following:
   1-23              (1)  murder, capital murder, arson, aggravated robbery,
   1-24  robbery, burglary, theft, aggravated kidnapping, kidnapping,
   1-25  aggravated assault, aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault,
   1-26  forgery, deadly conduct, assault punishable as a Class A
   1-27  misdemeanor, burglary of a motor vehicle, or unauthorized use of a
   1-28  motor vehicle;
   1-29              (2)  any gambling offense punishable as a Class A
   1-30  misdemeanor;
   1-31              (3)  promotion of prostitution, aggravated promotion of
   1-32  prostitution, or compelling prostitution;
   1-33              (4)  unlawful manufacture, transportation, repair, or
   1-34  sale of firearms or prohibited weapons;
   1-35              (5)  unlawful manufacture, delivery, dispensation, or
   1-36  distribution of a controlled substance or dangerous drug, or
   1-37  unlawful possession of a controlled substance or dangerous drug
   1-38  through forgery, fraud, misrepresentation, or deception;
   1-39              (6)  any unlawful wholesale promotion or possession of
   1-40  any obscene material or obscene device with the intent to wholesale
   1-41  promote the same;
   1-42              (7)  any unlawful employment, authorization, or
   1-43  inducing of a child younger than 17 years of age in an obscene
   1-44  sexual performance;
   1-45              (8)  any felony offense under Chapter 32, Penal Code;
   1-46              (9)  any offense under Chapter 36, Penal Code; or
   1-47              (10)  any offense under Chapter 34, Penal Code.
   1-48        SECTION 3.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-49        (b)  The change in law made by this Act applies only to an
   1-50  offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.  For
   1-51  purposes of this section, an offense is committed before the
   1-52  effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
   1-53  before the effective date.
   1-54        (c)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
   1-55  Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
   1-56  and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   1-57        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-58  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-59  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-60  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-61  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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