By Cuellar                                       H.B. No. 908

      75R4410 KEL-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the appointment of counsel to represent indigent

 1-3     defendants or inmates.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Chapter 26, Code of Criminal Procedure, is

 1-6     amended by adding Article 26.061 to read as follows:

 1-7           Art. 26.061.  ATTORNEYS EMPLOYED BY STATE OR POLITICAL

 1-8     SUBDIVISION.   A court may not appoint an attorney who is a

 1-9     full-time employee of the state or a political subdivision of the

1-10     state, other than a public defender, to represent an indigent

1-11     defendant or inmate under this chapter.

1-12           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-13     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-14     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-15     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-16     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-17     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-18     passage, and it is so enacted.