1-1     By:  Gallego, Naishtat (Senate Sponsor - Ellis)        H.B. No. 245
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 5, 1999;
 1-3     May 6, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal
 1-4     Justice; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the procedures for determining whether a defendant
 1-9     sentenced to death is incompetent for purposes of execution.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Chapter 46, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-12     amended by adding Article 46.04 to read as follows:
1-13           Art. 46.04.  COMPETENCY TO BE EXECUTED.  (a)  A person who is
1-14     incompetent to be executed may not be executed.
1-15           (b)  The trial court retains jurisdiction over motions
1-16     brought by or for a defendant under this article.
1-17           (c)  If the attorney representing the state, the attorney
1-18     representing the defendant, or the trial court on its own motion
1-19     raises the issue as to whether a defendant is incompetent to be
1-20     executed, the trial court shall order at least two mental health
1-21     experts to examine the defendant and using the standard described
1-22     by Subsection (d) determine whether the defendant is incompetent to
1-23     be executed.
1-24           (d)  A defendant is incompetent to be executed if the
1-25     defendant does not understand:
1-26                 (1)  that he or she is to be executed and that the
1-27     execution is imminent; and
1-28                 (2)  the reason he or she is being executed.
1-29           (e)  Mental health experts who examine a defendant under this
1-30     article shall provide within a time ordered by the court copies of
1-31     their reports to the attorney representing the state, the attorney
1-32     representing the defendant, and the court.
1-33           (f)  If on the basis of reports provided by mental health
1-34     experts under this article the court finds the defendant is
1-35     incompetent to be executed, the defendant may not be executed.  The
1-36     trial court periodically shall order that the convicted person be
1-37     reexamined by mental health experts to determine whether the
1-38     convicted person is no longer incompetent to be executed.
1-39           (g)  If on the basis of reports issued by mental health
1-40     experts under this article the court finds that the defendant is
1-41     not incompetent to be executed, the trial court may set an
1-42     execution date as otherwise provided by law.
1-43           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-44           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-45     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-46     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-47     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-48     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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