By Solomons                                            H.B. No. 684
         76R1632 JMC-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the murder of an individual who is protected by a court
 1-3     order by a person to whom the order is directed as a capital
 1-4     offense.
 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 19.03(a), Penal Code, is amended to read
 1-7     as follows:
 1-8           (a)  A person commits an offense if the person [he] commits
 1-9     murder as defined under Section 19.02(b)(1) and:
1-10                 (1)  the person murders a peace officer or fireman who
1-11     is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the
1-12     person knows is a peace officer or fireman;
1-13                 (2)  the person intentionally commits the murder in the
1-14     course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, burglary,
1-15     robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, or obstruction or
1-16     retaliation;
1-17                 (3)  the person commits the murder for remuneration or
1-18     the promise of remuneration or employs another to commit the murder
1-19     for remuneration or the promise of remuneration;
1-20                 (4)  the person commits the murder while escaping or
1-21     attempting to escape from a penal institution;
1-22                 (5)  the person, while incarcerated in a penal
1-23     institution, murders another:
1-24                       (A)  who is employed in the operation of the
 2-1     penal institution; or
 2-2                       (B)  with the intent to establish, maintain, or
 2-3     participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination;
 2-4                 (6)  the person:
 2-5                       (A)  while incarcerated for an offense under this
 2-6     section or Section 19.02, murders another; or
 2-7                       (B)  while serving a sentence of life
 2-8     imprisonment or a term of 99 years for an offense under Section
 2-9     20.04, 22.021, or 29.03, murders another;
2-10                 (7)  the person murders more than one person:
2-11                       (A)  during the same criminal transaction; or
2-12                       (B)  during different criminal transactions but
2-13     the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of
2-14     conduct; [or]
2-15                 (8)  the person murders an individual under six years
2-16     of age; or
2-17                 (9)  the person murders an individual who is protected
2-18     by an order issued under Section 6.504 or Chapter 85, Family Code,
2-19     under Article 17.292, Code of Criminal Procedure, or by another
2-20     jurisdiction as provided by Chapter 88, Family Code, while the
2-21     order is directed to the person.
2-22            SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
2-23     to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
2-24     An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
2-25     covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed, and
2-26     the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.  For
2-27     purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the
 3-1     effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
 3-2     before that date.
 3-3           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 3-4           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 3-5     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 3-6     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-7     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-8     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.