By Zaffirini                                     S.B. No. 401

      75R3877 MLS-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the duties of the district attorney for the 156th

 1-3     Judicial District.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 43.161, Government Code, is amended to

 1-6     read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 43.161. 156TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT.  (a)  The voters of

 1-8     Bee, Live Oak, and McMullen counties elect a district attorney for

 1-9     the 156th Judicial District who represents the state in that

1-10     district court only in those counties.  In addition to exercising

1-11     the duties and authority conferred on district attorneys by general

1-12     law, the district attorney shall also represent the state in all

1-13     criminal cases in the district courts in those counties.

1-14           (b)  If there is no county attorney in McMullen County, the

1-15     district attorney shall perform the duties of the county attorney

1-16     in McMullen County.

1-17           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,

1-22     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its

1-23     passage, and it is so enacted.