1-1     By:  Berlanga (Senate Sponsor - Ellis)                H.B. No. 2845

 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 8, 1997;

 1-3     May 9, 1997, read first time and referred to Committee on

 1-4     Jurisprudence; May 15, 1997, reported favorably by the following

 1-5     vote:  Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 15, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to the authority of a justice of the peace to reopen an

 1-9     inquest.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Subchapter A, Chapter 49, Code of Criminal

1-12     Procedure, is amended by adding Article 49.041 to read as follows:

1-13           Art. 49.041.  REOPENING AN INQUEST.  A justice of the peace

1-14     may reopen an inquest if, based on information provided by a

1-15     credible person or facts within the knowledge of the justice of the

1-16     peace, the justice of the peace determines that reopening the

1-17     inquest may reveal a different cause or different circumstances of

1-18     death.

1-19           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-20           SECTION 3.  The change in law made by this Act applies to an

1-21     inquest into the death of a person who dies before, on, or after

1-22     the effective date of this Act.

1-23           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-25     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-26     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-27     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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