By:  Wentworth                                         S.B. No. 886
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the retrial of a case in a justice court or municipal
    1-2  court after a mistrial has been declared.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Article 45.40, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-5  amended to read as follows:
    1-6        Art. 45.40.  MISTRIAL.  A jury shall be discharged if it
    1-7  fails to agree to a verdict after being kept together a reasonable
    1-8  time.  If a jury is discharged without having rendered a verdict,
    1-9  the cause may be tried again during the same term or during another
   1-10  term.  <there be time left on the same day, another jury may be
   1-11  impaneled to try the cause, or the justice may adjourn for not more
   1-12  than two days and again impanel a jury to try such cause.>
   1-13        SECTION 2.  Chapter 30, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is
   1-14  amended by adding Section 30.007 to read as follows:
   1-15        Sec. 30.007.  MISTRIAL IN JUSTICE COURT OR MUNICIPAL COURT.
   1-16  If a jury in a trial in a justice court or a municipal court is
   1-17  discharged without having rendered a verdict, the cause may be
   1-18  tried again as soon as practicable.
   1-19        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-20  applies to a trial in a justice court or municipal court that
   1-21  begins on or after that date.  For purposes of this section, a
   1-22  trial begins on the date a jury is impaneled.  A trial that begins
   1-23  in a justice court or municipal court before the effective date of
   1-24  this Act is governed by the law in effect when the trial began, and
    2-1  that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
    2-2        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-3  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-4  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-5  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-6  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.