By Sibley                                        S.B. No. 261

      75R3851 GWK-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the waiver of a trial by jury.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Article 1.13(c), Code of Criminal Procedure, is

 1-5     amended to read as follows:

 1-6           (c)  A defendant may agree to waive a jury trial regardless

 1-7     of whether the defendant is represented by an attorney at the time

 1-8     of making the waiver, but before [Before] a defendant charged with

 1-9     a felony who has no attorney can agree to waive the  jury, the

1-10     court must appoint an attorney to represent him.

1-11           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only

1-12     to the trial of an offense that commences on or after the effective

1-13     date of this Act, whether the trial is for an offense committed

1-14     before, on, or after the effective date of this Act.

1-15           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-16           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.