By Longoria                                            H.B. No. 187
         76R961 KEL-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the disqualification of a judge in a criminal case.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Article 30.01, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
 1-5     amended to read as follows:
 1-6           Art. 30.01.  CAUSES WHICH DISQUALIFY.  (a)  No judge or
 1-7     justice of the peace shall sit in any case where he may be the
 1-8     party injured, or where he has been of counsel for the State or the
 1-9     accused, or where the accused or the party injured may be connected
1-10     with him by consanguinity or affinity within the third degree, as
1-11     determined under Chapter 573, Government Code.
1-12           (b)  In addition to the grounds listed in Subsection (a) of
1-13     this article, a judge or justice of the peace shall disqualify
1-14     himself in any case in which:
1-15                 (1)  his impartiality might reasonably be questioned;
1-16                 (2)  he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a
1-17     party;
1-18                 (3)  he has personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary
1-19     facts concerning the case; or
1-20                 (4)  his spouse or a person connected with him or his
1-21     spouse within the first degree of consanguinity or affinity, as
1-22     determined under Chapter 573, Government Code, is an attorney
1-23     involved in the case.
1-24           (c)  If a party files a motion to disqualify under this
 2-1     article, and the judge or justice of the peace does not grant the
 2-2     motion, the judge or justice of the peace shall follow the same
 2-3     procedure in disposing of the motion as a motion for recusal or
 2-4     disqualification in a civil case under Rule 18a, Texas Rules of
 2-5     Civil Procedure.
 2-6           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
 2-7     only to the trial for an offense that commences on or after the
 2-8     effective date of this Act.
 2-9           (b)  The trial of an offense that commenced before the
2-10     effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect when
2-11     the trial began, and the former law is continued in effect for that
2-12     purpose.
2-13           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-14           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-15     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-16     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-17     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-18     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.