By:  Henderson                                         S.B. No. 577
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to pleas entered by a minor in justice or municipal court.
    1-2        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-3        SECTION 1.  Chapter 45, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-4  amended by adding Article 45.331 to read as follows:
    1-5        Art. 45.331.  PLEA BY MINOR.  (a)  A plea of a defendant who
    1-6  is younger than 17 years of age and who has not had the
    1-7  disabilities of minority removed must be made in open court with
    1-8  the defendant's parent, guardian, or managing conservator present.
    1-9        (b)  The court shall cause one or both parents or guardians
   1-10  to be summoned to appear in court and shall require one or both of
   1-11  them to be present during all proceedings in the case.  However,
   1-12  the court may waive the requirement of the presence of parents or
   1-13  guardians in any case in which, after diligent effort, the court is
   1-14  unable to locate them or to compel their presence.
   1-15        (c)  If the defendant resides in a county other than the
   1-16  county in which the alleged offense occurred, the defendant may,
   1-17  with leave of the court, enter the plea, including a plea under
   1-18  Article 45.55, before a justice in the county in which the
   1-19  defendant resides.
   1-20        SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   1-21        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-22  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-23  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-24  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-1  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.