By Whitmire                                      S.B. No. 663

      75R3651 GWK-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to the authority of a judge to place a defendant convicted

 1-3     of a state jail felony on community supervision and to the

 1-4     conditions of community supervision that the judge may impose on

 1-5     the defendant.

 1-6           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-7           SECTION 1.  Subsections (a) and (d), Section 15, Article

 1-8     42.12, Code of Criminal Procedure, are amended to read as follows:

 1-9           (a)  On conviction of a state jail felony punished under

1-10     Section 12.35(a), Penal Code, the judge [shall suspend the

1-11     imposition of the sentence of confinement and place the defendant

1-12     on community supervision, unless the defendant has been previously

1-13     convicted of a felony, in which event the judge] may suspend the

1-14     imposition of the sentence and place the defendant on community

1-15     supervision or may order the sentence to be executed.  The judge

1-16     may suspend in whole or in part the imposition of any fine imposed

1-17     on conviction.

1-18           (d)  A judge may impose as a condition of community

1-19     supervision that a defendant submit at any time during [the

1-20     beginning of] the period of community supervision to a term of

1-21     confinement in a  state jail felony facility for a term of not less

1-22     than 90 days or more than 180 days, or a term of not less than 90

1-23     days or more than one year if the defendant is convicted of an

1-24     offense punishable as a state jail felony under  Section 481.112,

 2-1     481.113, or  481.120, Health and Safety Code. A judge may not

 2-2     require a defendant to submit to both the term of confinement

 2-3     authorized by this subsection and a term of confinement under

 2-4     Section 5 or 12 of this article.  For the purposes of this

 2-5     subsection, a defendant previously has been convicted of a felony

 2-6     regardless of whether the sentence for the previous conviction was

 2-7     actually imposed or was probated and suspended.

 2-8           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies

 2-9     only to a defendant convicted of an offense committed on or after

2-10     the effective date of this Act.  For purposes of this section, an

2-11     offense is committed before the effective date of this Act if any

2-12     element of the offense occurs before the effective date.

2-13           (b)  A defendant convicted of an offense committed before the

2-14     effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the

2-15     offense was committed, and the former law is continued in effect

2-16     for that purpose.

2-17           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

2-18           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.