By Brown                                               S.B. No. 346
       74R1408 MWV-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to funds used to compensate victims of crime.
    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        SECTION 2.  Section 56.54, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
   1-19  amended by adding Subsection (h) to read as follows:
   1-20        (h)  Sections 403.094 and 403.095, Government Code, do not
   1-21  apply to the compensation to victims of crime fund or the
   1-22  compensation to victims of crime auxiliary fund.
   1-23        SECTION 3.  The compensation to victims of crime fund and the
   1-24  compensation to victims of crime auxiliary fund are re-created as
    2-1  special funds to be used for the purposes designated in Subchapter
    2-2  B, Chapter 56, Code of Criminal Procedure.
    2-3        SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
    2-4  applies only to an oral jury summons made or a written jury summons
    2-5  sent on or after January 1, 1996.  A jury summons made or sent
    2-6  before January 1, 1996, is governed by the law as it existed
    2-7  immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is
    2-8  continued in effect for that purpose.
    2-9        SECTION 5.  Not later than December 1, 1995, the attorney
   2-10  general shall adopt rules consistent with this Act prescribing
   2-11  procedures to be followed by the county treasurers and the state
   2-12  treasurer in collecting donations from jurors under Section 61.003,
   2-13  Government Code, as added by this Act.
   2-14        SECTION 6.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-15  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-16  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-17  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-18  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.