By Talton, Nixon H.B. No. 89
75R1424 GWK-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the applicability of habitual offender punishment
1-3 provisions to certain defendants convicted of state jail felonies.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 12.42(d)(1), Penal Code, is amended to
1-6 read as follows:
1-7 (d)(1) If it is shown on the trial of a felony offense
1-8 [other than a state jail felony punishable under Section 12.35(a)]
1-9 that the defendant has previously been finally convicted of two
1-10 felony offenses, and the second previous felony conviction is for
1-11 an offense that occurred subsequent to the first previous
1-12 conviction having become final, on conviction he shall be punished
1-13 by imprisonment in the institutional division of the Texas
1-14 Department of Criminal Justice for life, or for any term of not
1-15 more than 99 years or less than 25 years.
1-16 SECTION 2. (a) The change in law made by this Act applies
1-17 only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
1-18 Act. For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
1-19 the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
1-20 before the effective date.
1-21 (b) An offense committed before the effective date of this
1-22 Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
1-23 and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-24 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
2-1 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-2 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-3 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-4 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-5 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.