By Thompson                                           H.B. No. 1259

         75R5594 KEL-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the prosecution of and the punishment for the offense

 1-3     of interference with child custody.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Sections 25.03(a) and (d), Penal Code, are

 1-6     amended to read as follows:

 1-7           (a)  A person commits an offense if he takes or retains a

 1-8     child younger than 18 years when he:

 1-9                 (1)  knows that his taking or retention violates the

1-10     express terms of a judgment or order of a court disposing of the

1-11     child's custody; or

1-12                 (2)  has not been awarded custody of the child by a

1-13     court of competent jurisdiction, knows that a suit for divorce or a

1-14     civil suit or application for habeas corpus to dispose of the

1-15     child's custody has been filed, and takes or retains the child out

1-16     of the geographic area of the counties composing the judicial

1-17     district if the court is a district court or the county if the

1-18     court is a statutory county court, without the permission of the

1-19     court and with the intent to deprive the court of authority over

1-20     the child.

1-21           (d)  An offense under this section is a [state jail] felony

1-22     of the third degree, except that the offense is a felony of the

1-23     second degree if:

1-24                 (1)  the actor commits the offense for remuneration or

 2-1     the promise of remuneration; or

 2-2                 (2)  the actor removes the child from the state during

 2-3     the commission of the offense.

 2-4           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.  The

 2-5     change in law made by this Act applies only to an offense committed

 2-6     on or after September 1, 1997.  An offense committed before

 2-7     September 1, 1997, is covered by the law in effect when the offense

 2-8     was committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that

 2-9     purpose.  For purposes of this section, an offense was committed

2-10     before September 1, 1997, if any element of the offense occurred

2-11     before that date.

2-12           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-13     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-14     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-15     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-16     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.