By Wentworth                                           S.B. No. 918
       74R5065 NSC-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the appeal from a justice or municipal court in a
    1-3  criminal case.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Article 44.14, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
    1-6  amended to read as follows:
    1-7        Art. 44.14.  FILING BOND PERFECTS APPEAL.  (a)  In appeals
    1-8  from justice and municipal <corporation> courts, when the appeal
    1-9  bond provided for in the preceding Article has been filed with the
   1-10  justice or judge who tried the case not later than the 10th day
   1-11  after the date the judgment was entered, the appeal in such case
   1-12  shall be held to be perfected.
   1-13        (b)  If an appeal bond is not timely filed, the appeal court
   1-14  does not have jurisdiction over the case and shall remand the case
   1-15  to the justice or municipal court for execution of the sentence.
   1-16        (c)  No appeal shall be dismissed because the defendant
   1-17  failed to give notice of appeal in open court.  An appeal by the
   1-18  defendant or the state may not be dismissed<, nor> on account of
   1-19  any defect in the transcript.
   1-20        SECTION 2.  Article 45.49, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
   1-21  amended to read as follows:
   1-22        Art. 45.49.  JUDGMENTS IN OPEN COURT.  (a)  All judgments and
   1-23  sentences and final orders of the justice shall be rendered in open
   1-24  court and entered upon his docket.
    2-1        (b)  The clerk of the court shall note the date a judgment is
    2-2  entered on a docket.
    2-3        SECTION 3.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
    2-4  to an appeal filed under Article 44.14, Code of Criminal Procedure,
    2-5  as amended by this Act, on or after the effective date of this Act.
    2-6  An appeal filed before the effective date of this Act is covered by
    2-7  the law in effect when the appeal was filed, and the former law is
    2-8  continued in effect for this purpose.
    2-9        SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   2-10        SECTION 5.  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.