1-1  By:  Wentworth                                         S.B. No. 886
    1-2        (In the Senate - Filed March 2, 1995; March 6, 1995, read
    1-3  first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
    1-4  April 5, 1995, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 5,
    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 the retrial of a case in a justice court or municipal
    1-9  court after a mistrial has been declared.
   1-10        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
   1-11        SECTION 1.  Article 45.40, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
   1-12  amended to read as follows:
   1-13        Art. 45.40.  MISTRIAL.  A jury shall be discharged if it
   1-14  fails to agree to a verdict after being kept together a reasonable
   1-15  time.  If a jury is discharged without having rendered a verdict,
   1-16  the cause may be tried again during the same term or during another
   1-17  term.  <there be time left on the same day, another jury may be
   1-18  impaneled to try the cause, or the justice may adjourn for not more
   1-19  than two days and again impanel a jury to try such cause.>
   1-20        SECTION 2.  Chapter 30, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is
   1-21  amended by adding Section 30.007 to read as follows:
   1-22        Sec. 30.007.  MISTRIAL IN JUSTICE COURT OR MUNICIPAL COURT.
   1-23  If a jury in a trial in a justice court or a municipal court is
   1-24  discharged without having rendered a verdict, the cause may be
   1-25  tried again as soon as practicable.
   1-26        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
   1-27  applies to a trial in a justice court or municipal court that
   1-28  begins on or after that date.  For purposes of this section, a
   1-29  trial begins on the date a jury is impaneled.  A trial that begins
   1-30  in a justice court or municipal court before the effective date of
   1-31  this Act is governed by the law in effect when the trial began, and
   1-32  that law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   1-33        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-34  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-35  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-36  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-37  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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