By Keel                                                H.B. No. 657
         76R3820 GWK-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to compensation under the Crime Victims' Compensation Act
 1-3     for necessary costs incurred in witnessing an execution.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Article 56.32(a)(9), Code of Criminal Procedure,
 1-6     is amended to read as follows:
 1-7                 (9)  "Pecuniary loss" means the amount of expense
 1-8     reasonably and necessarily incurred as a result of personal injury
 1-9     or death for:
1-10                       (A)  medical, hospital, nursing, or psychiatric
1-11     care or counseling, or physical therapy;
1-12                       (B)  actual loss of past earnings and anticipated
1-13     loss of future earnings and necessary travel expenses because of:
1-14                             (i)  a disability resulting from the
1-15     personal injury;
1-16                             (ii)  the receipt of medically indicated
1-17     services related to the disability resulting from the personal
1-18     injury; or
1-19                             (iii)  participation in or attendance at
1-20     investigative, prosecutorial, or judicial processes related to the
1-21     criminally injurious conduct and participation in or attendance at
1-22     any postconviction or postadjudication proceeding relating to
1-23     criminally injurious conduct;
1-24                       (C)  care of a child or dependent;
 2-1                       (D)  funeral and burial expenses;
 2-2                       (E)  loss of support to a dependent, consistent
 2-3     with Article 56.41(b)(5);
 2-4                       (F)  reasonable and necessary costs of cleaning
 2-5     the crime scene; [and]
 2-6                       (G)  reasonable replacement costs for clothing,
 2-7     bedding, or property of the victim seized as evidence or rendered
 2-8     unusable as a result of the criminal investigation; and
 2-9                       (H)  reasonable and necessary costs of traveling
2-10     to and from a place of execution for the purpose of witnessing the
2-11     execution, including one night's lodging near the place at which
2-12     the execution is conducted.
2-13           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
2-14     to compensation for costs incurred on or after the effective date
2-15     of this Act.  Compensation for costs incurred before the effective
2-16     date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when those costs
2-17     were incurred, and the former law is continued in effect for this
2-18     purpose.
2-19           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-20     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-21     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-22     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-23     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-24     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-25     passage, and it is so enacted.