By Wise                                                H.B. No. 301
         76R2305 GWK-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the rights of an accused in the criminal justice
 1-3     system.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Art. 1.05, Code of Criminal Procedure, is amended
 1-6     to read as follows:
 1-7           Art. 1.05.  RIGHTS OF ACCUSED.  (a)  In all criminal
 1-8     prosecutions the accused shall have a speedy public trial by an
 1-9     impartial jury.  He shall have the right to demand the nature and
1-10     cause of the accusation against him, and to have a copy thereof.
1-11     He shall not be compelled to give evidence against himself.  He
1-12     shall have the right of being heard by himself, or counsel, or
1-13     both; shall be confronted with the witnesses against him, and shall
1-14     have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor.  No
1-15     person shall be held to answer for a felony unless on indictment of
1-16     a grand jury.
1-17           (b)  During a criminal investigation or prosecution of an
1-18     offense under Section 21.11, 22.011, or 22.021, Penal Code, the
1-19     name and any information that could reveal the identity of a person
1-20     suspected or accused of the offense is confidential and may be
1-21     released only at or after the time that an information is filed or
1-22     an indictment is returned.
1-23           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-2     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
 2-4     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
 2-5     passage, and it is so enacted.