1-1 By: Hightower (Senate Sponsor - Whitmire) H.B. No. 975
1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House April 10, 1997;
1-3 April 11, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on
1-4 Criminal Justice; May 2, 1997, reported favorably by the following
1-5 vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 2, 1997, sent to printer.)
1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-7 AN ACT
1-8 relating to preventing and prosecuting the criminal offense of
1-9 escape.
1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11 SECTION 1. Sections 9.01(1) and (2), Penal Code, are amended
1-12 to read as follows:
1-13 (1) "Custody" has the meaning assigned by Section
1-14 38.01 [means:]
1-15 [(A) under arrest by a peace officer; or]
1-16 [(B) under restraint by a public servant
1-17 pursuant to an order of a court].
1-18 (2) "Escape" has the meaning assigned by Section 38.01
1-19 [means unauthorized departure from custody or failure to return to
1-20 custody following temporary leave for a specific purpose or limited
1-21 period, but does not include a violation of conditions of community
1-22 supervision or parole, or following leave that is part of an
1-23 intermittent sentence].
1-24 SECTION 2. Section 38.01(1), Penal Code, is amended to read
1-25 as follows:
1-26 (1) "Custody" means:
1-27 (A) under arrest by a peace officer or under
1-28 restraint by a public servant pursuant to an order of a court of
1-29 this state or another state of the United States; or
1-30 (B) under restraint by an agent or employee of a
1-31 facility that is operated by or under contract with the United
1-32 States and that confines persons arrested for, charged with, or
1-33 convicted of criminal offenses.
1-34 SECTION 3. (a) The change in law made by this Act applies
1-35 only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
1-36 Act. For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
1-37 the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
1-38 before the effective date.
1-39 (b) An offense committed before the effective date of this
1-40 Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
1-41 and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-42 SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
1-43 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
1-44 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-45 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-46 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-47 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-48 * * * * *