By Puente                                              H.B. No. 248
         76R765 JMC-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the requirement that a surety notify a principal of a
 1-3     bail bond or the principal's attorney of the surety's intention to
 1-4     surrender the principal.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Article 17.19(a), Code of Criminal Procedure, is
 1-7     amended to read as follows:
 1-8           (a)  Any surety, desiring to surrender his principal and
 1-9     after notifying the principal or the principal's attorney in a
1-10     manner provided by  Rule 21a, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, of
1-11     the surety's intention to surrender the principal, may file an
1-12     affidavit of such intention before the court or magistrate before
1-13     which the  prosecution is pending.  The affidavit must state [the]:
1-14                 (1)  the court and cause number of the case;
1-15                 (2)  the name of the defendant;
1-16                 (3)  the offense with which the defendant is charged;
1-17                 (4)  the date of the bond;  [and]
1-18                 (5)  the cause for the surrender; and
1-19                 (6)  that notice of the surety's intention to surrender
1-20     the principal has been given as required by this subsection.
1-21           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
1-22     to a principal who executes a bail bond on or after the effective
1-23     date of this Act.  A principal who executes a bail bond before the
1-24     effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the
 2-1     bail bond was executed, and the former law is continued in effect
 2-2     for that purpose.
 2-3           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-4           SECTION 4.  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.