By Place                                         H.B. No. 312

      75R1567 JMC-F                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the offense of tampering with a witness.

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

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 36.05(a), Penal Code, is amended to read

 1-5     as follows:

 1-6           (a)  A person commits an offense if, with intent to influence

 1-7     the witness, he offers, confers, or agrees to confer any benefit on

 1-8     a witness or prospective witness in an official proceeding or

 1-9     coerces a witness or prospective witness in an official proceeding:

1-10                 (1)  to testify falsely;

1-11                 (2)  to withhold any testimony, information, document,

1-12     or thing;

1-13                 (3)  to elude legal process summoning him to testify or

1-14     supply evidence;

1-15                 (4)  to absent himself from an official proceeding to

1-16     which he has been legally summoned;  or

1-17                 (5)  to abstain from, discontinue, or delay the

1-18     prosecution of another [witness].

1-19           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies

1-20     only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this

1-21     Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before

1-22     the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs

1-23     before that date.

1-24           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this

 2-1     Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,

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

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

 2-4           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-5     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-6     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-7     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-8     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.