By Craddick                                      H.B. No. 477

      75R241 MWV-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to certain juror donations used to support certain

 1-3     charities.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 61.003(c), Government Code, is amended to

 1-6     read as follows:

 1-7           (c)  Notwithstanding Subsections (a) and (b), a juror

 1-8     reimbursement donation program approved by the commissioners court

 1-9     [established before January 1, 1995,] may solicit juror donations

1-10     and provide all funds collected in the name of that program to the

1-11     charities served by that program [on January 1, 1995].

1-12           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-13     applies only to an oral jury summons made or a written jury summons

1-14     sent on or after January 1, 1998.  A jury summons made or sent

1-15     before January 1, 1998, is governed by the law as it existed

1-16     immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is

1-17     continued in effect for that purpose.

1-18           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.