1-1     By:  Keel, Hinojosa (Senate Sponsor - Barrientos)      H.B. No. 149
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House March 22, 1999;
 1-3     March 23, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Criminal Justice; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following
 1-5     vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to fees assessed on the filing of certain applications or
 1-9     petitions for a writ of habeas corpus.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Chapter 11, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-12     amended by adding Article 11.051 to read as follows:
1-13           Art. 11.051.  FILING FEE PROHIBITED.  Notwithstanding any
1-14     other law, a clerk of a court may not require a filing fee from an
1-15     individual who files an application or petition for a writ of
1-16     habeas corpus.
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.
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