By Zaffirini                                     S.B. No. 502

      75R1891 SKB-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to autopsies performed on a body if the deceased was a

 1-3     child younger than six years of age.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Article 49.10(e), Code of Criminal Procedure, is

 1-6     amended to read as follows:

 1-7           (e)  A justice of the peace shall order an autopsy performed

 1-8     on a body if:

 1-9                 (1)  the justice determines that an autopsy is

1-10     necessary to determine or confirm the nature and cause of death;

1-11                 (2)  the deceased was a child younger than six years of

1-12     age and the death is determined [was reported] under Section

1-13     264.514 [Chapter 264], Family Code, to be unexpected; or

1-14                 (3)  directed to do so by the district attorney,

1-15     criminal district attorney, or, if there is no district or criminal

1-16     district attorney, the county attorney.

1-17           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-18     applies only to a death of a child younger than six years of age

1-19     that occurs on or after September 1, 1997.  A death of a child that

1-20     occurs before September 1, 1997, is governed by the law as it

1-21     existed immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that

1-22     law is continued in effect for that purpose.

1-23           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

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

 2-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

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

 2-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.