1-1           By:  Sibley                                      S.B. No. 261

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed January 22, 1997; January 23, 1997,

 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Jurisprudence;

 1-4     February 18, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas

 1-5     7, Nays 0; February 18, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to the waiver of a trial by jury.

 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-10           SECTION 1.  Subsection (c), Article 1.13, Code of Criminal

1-11     Procedure, is amended to read as follows:

1-12           (c)  A defendant may agree to waive a jury trial regardless

1-13     of whether the defendant is represented by an attorney at the time

1-14     of making the waiver, but before [Before] a defendant charged with

1-15     a felony who has no attorney can agree to waive the jury, the court

1-16     must appoint an attorney to represent him.

1-17           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only

1-18     to the trial of an offense that commences on or after the effective

1-19     date of this Act, whether the trial is for an offense committed

1-20     before, on, or after the effective date of this Act.

1-21           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-22           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-23     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-24     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-25     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-26     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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