By: Shapleigh S.B. No. 857
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to an application for issuance of a subpoena.
1-2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-3 SECTION 1. Subsection (a), Article 24.03, Code of Criminal
1-4 Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
1-5 (a) Before the clerk or his deputy shall be required or
1-6 permitted to issue a subpoena in any felony case pending in any
1-7 district or criminal district court of this State of which he is
1-8 clerk or deputy, the defendant or his attorney or the State's
1-9 attorney shall make an [written, sworn] application in writing or
1-10 by electronic means to such clerk for each witness desired. Such
1-11 application shall state the name of each witness desired, the
1-12 location and vocation, if known, and that the testimony of said
1-13 witness is material to the State or to the defense. The
1-14 application must be filed with the clerk [and placed with the
1-15 papers in the cause] and made available to both the State and the
1-16 defendant. Except as provided by Subsection (b) [of this article],
1-17 as far as is practical such clerk shall include in one subpoena the
1-18 names of all witnesses for the State and for defendant, and such
1-19 process shall show that the witnesses are summoned for the State or
1-20 for the defendant. When a witness has been served with a subpoena,
1-21 attached or placed under bail at the instance of either party in a
1-22 particular case, such execution of process shall inure to the
1-23 benefit of the opposite party in such case in the event such
2-1 opposite party desires to use such witness on the trial of the
2-2 case, provided that when a witness has once been served with a
2-3 subpoena, no further subpoena shall be issued for said witness.
2-4 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
2-5 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-6 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-7 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-8 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-9 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-10 passage, and it is so enacted.
2-11 COMMITTEE AMENDMENT NO. 1
2-12 Amend S.B. No. 857 as follows:
2-13 (1) Insert the following appropriately numbered section of
2-14 the bill to read as follows:
2-15 SECTION ____. Chapter 30, Civil Practice and Remedies Code,
2-16 is amended by adding Section 30.011 to read as follows:
2-17 Sec. 30.011. ELECTRONIC SUBPOENA APPLICATION. (a) In
2-18 addition to any other procedure permitted under state law or by
2-19 court rule, an application for issuance of a subpoena may be made
2-20 by electronic means.
2-21 (b) Notwithstanding Section 22.004, Government Code, this
2-22 section may not be modified or repealed by a rule adopted by the
2-23 supreme court.
2-24 (2) Renumber the sections of the bill accordingly.
2-25 Reyna of Bexar