By Hunter                                              H.B. No. 556
         76R3218 PEP-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to permitting certain persons to seek an expunction of
 1-3     arrest records and files.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Article 55.01(b), Code of Criminal Procedure, is
 1-6     amended to read as follows:
 1-7           (b)  A district court may expunge all records and files
 1-8     relating to the arrest of a person who has been arrested for
 1-9     commission of a felony or misdemeanor under the procedure
1-10     established under Article 55.02 [of this code] if the person is:
1-11                 (1)  tried for the offense for which the person was
1-12     arrested,[;]
1-13                 [(2)]  convicted of the offense,[;] and
1-14                 [(3)]  acquitted by the court of criminal appeals; or
1-15                 (2)  placed on community supervision after having been
1-16     convicted of the offense, if the convicting court under Section 20,
1-17     Article 42.12, subsequently sets aside the conviction, discharges
1-18     the person from community supervision, and releases the person from
1-19     penalties and disabilities.
1-20           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-21           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.