S.B. No. 346
AN ACT
1-1 relating to certain juror donations used to compensate victims of
1-2 crime and to support certain charities.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Chapter 61, Government Code, is amended by adding
1-5 Section 61.003 to read as follows:
1-6 Sec. 61.003. DONATION OF REIMBURSEMENT. (a) A person
1-7 responsible under Section 62.013 or 62.014 for summoning
1-8 prospective jurors to appear for jury service shall provide to each
1-9 prospective juror a form letter that when signed by the prospective
1-10 juror directs the county treasurer to donate all or part of the
1-11 prospective juror's reimbursement for jury service to the
1-12 compensation to victims of crime fund under Subchapter B, Chapter
1-13 56, Code of Criminal Procedure.
1-14 (b) The county treasurer shall send all donations made under
1-15 this section to the state treasurer, at the time and in the manner
1-16 prescribed by the attorney general, for deposit to the credit of
1-17 the compensation to victims of crime fund.
1-18 (c) Notwithstanding Subsections (a) and (b), a juror
1-19 reimbursement donation program established before January 1, 1995,
1-20 may solicit juror donations and provide all funds collected in the
1-21 name of that program to the charities served by that program on
1-22 January 1, 1995.
1-23 SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
1-24 applies only to an oral jury summons made or a written jury summons
2-1 sent on or after January 1, 1996. A jury summons made or sent
2-2 before January 1, 1996, is governed by the law as it existed
2-3 immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is
2-4 continued in effect for that purpose.
2-5 SECTION 3. Not later than December 1, 1995, the attorney
2-6 general shall adopt rules consistent with this Act prescribing
2-7 procedures to be followed by the county treasurers and the state
2-8 treasurer in collecting donations from jurors under Section 61.003,
2-9 Government Code, as added by this Act.
2-10 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-11 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-12 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-13 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-14 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.