By Danburg                                             H.B. No. 125

      75R1654 GWK-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the prosecution of the offense of sexual assault.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 22.011(b), Penal Code, is amended to read

 1-5     as follows:

 1-6           (b)  A sexual assault under Subsection (a)(1) is without the

 1-7     consent of the other person if:

 1-8                 (1)  the actor compels the other person to submit or

 1-9     participate by the use of physical force or violence;

1-10                 (2)  the actor compels the other person to submit or

1-11     participate by threatening to use force or violence against the

1-12     other person, and the other person believes that the actor has the

1-13     present ability to execute the threat;

1-14                 (3)  the other person has not consented and the actor

1-15     knows the other person is unconscious or physically unable to

1-16     resist;

1-17                 (4)  the actor knows that as a result of mental disease

1-18     or defect the other person is at the time of the sexual assault

1-19     incapable either of appraising the nature of the act or of

1-20     resisting it;

1-21                 (5)  the other person has not consented and the actor

1-22     knows the other person is unaware that the sexual assault is

1-23     occurring;

1-24                 (6)  the actor has intentionally impaired the other

 2-1     person's power to appraise or control the other person's conduct by

 2-2     administering any substance without the other person's knowledge;

 2-3                 (7)  the actor compels the other person to submit or

 2-4     participate by threatening to use force or violence against any

 2-5     person, and the other person believes that the actor has the

 2-6     ability to execute the threat;

 2-7                 (8)  the actor is a public servant who coerces the

 2-8     other person to submit or participate;

 2-9                 (9)  the actor is a mental health services provider who

2-10     causes the other person, who is a patient or former patient of the

2-11     actor, to submit or participate by exploiting the other person's

2-12     emotional dependency on the actor;  [or]

2-13                 (10)  the actor is a clergyman who causes the other

2-14     person to submit or participate by exploiting the other person's

2-15     emotional dependency on the clergyman in the clergyman's

2-16     professional character as spiritual adviser; or

2-17                 (11)  the other person expresses lack of consent by

2-18     words or conduct.

2-19           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies

2-20     only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this

2-21     Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before

2-22     the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs

2-23     before the effective date.

2-24           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this

2-25     Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,

2-26     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.

2-27           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

 3-1           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

 3-2     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 3-3     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 3-4     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 3-5     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.