By Wilson                                              H.B. No. 151

      75R1957 GWK-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to capital murder by a peace officer, jailer, or guard of

 1-3     a person in custody.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 19.03(a), Penal Code, is amended to read

 1-6     as follows:

 1-7           (a)  A person commits an offense if he commits murder as

 1-8     defined under Section 19.02(b)(1) and:

 1-9                 (1)  the person murders a peace officer or fireman who

1-10     is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the

1-11     person knows is a peace officer or fireman;

1-12                 (2)  the person intentionally commits the murder in the

1-13     course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, burglary,

1-14     robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, or obstruction or

1-15     retaliation;

1-16                 (3)  the person commits the murder for remuneration or

1-17     the promise of remuneration or employs another to commit the murder

1-18     for remuneration or the promise of remuneration;

1-19                 (4)  the person commits the murder while escaping or

1-20     attempting to escape from a penal institution;

1-21                 (5)  the person, while incarcerated in a penal

1-22     institution, murders another:

1-23                       (A)  who is employed in the operation of the

1-24     penal institution; or

 2-1                       (B)  with the intent to establish, maintain, or

 2-2     participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination;

 2-3                 (6)  the person:

 2-4                       (A)  while incarcerated for an offense under this

 2-5     section or Section 19.02, murders another; or

 2-6                       (B)  while serving a sentence of life

 2-7     imprisonment or a term of 99 years for an offense under Section

 2-8     20.04, 22.021, or 29.03, murders another;

 2-9                 (7)  the person murders more than one person:

2-10                       (A)  during the same criminal transaction; or

2-11                       (B)  during different criminal transactions but

2-12     the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of

2-13     conduct; [or]

2-14                 (8)  the person murders an individual under six years

2-15     of age; or

2-16                 (9)  the person:

2-17                       (A)  is a jailer or guard employed at a municipal

2-18     or county jail, by the institutional division or state jail

2-19     division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, or by a

2-20     correctional facility authorized by Subchapter F, Chapter 351,

2-21     Local Government Code, or Chapter 495, Government Code, or is a

2-22     peace officer; and

2-23                       (B)  murders another who at the time of the

2-24     offense is in the peace officer's, jailer's, or guard's custody.

2-25           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies

2-26     only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this

2-27     Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before

 3-1     the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs

 3-2     before the effective date.

 3-3           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this

 3-4     Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,

 3-5     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.

 3-6           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

 3-7           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

 3-8     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 3-9     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

3-10     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

3-11     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.