By Hilderbran H.B. No. 1025
76R2248 JMC-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the torture and murder of an individual as a capital
1-3 offense.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 19.03, Penal Code, is amended by amending
1-6 Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
1-7 (a) A person commits an offense if the person [he] commits
1-8 murder as defined under Section 19.02(b)(1) and:
1-9 (1) the person murders a peace officer or fireman who
1-10 is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the
1-11 person knows is a peace officer or fireman;
1-12 (2) the person intentionally commits the murder in the
1-13 course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, burglary,
1-14 robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, or obstruction or
1-15 retaliation;
1-16 (3) the person commits the murder for remuneration or
1-17 the promise of remuneration or employs another to commit the murder
1-18 for remuneration or the promise of remuneration;
1-19 (4) the person commits the murder while escaping or
1-20 attempting to escape from a penal institution;
1-21 (5) the person, while incarcerated in a penal
1-22 institution, murders another:
1-23 (A) who is employed in the operation of the
1-24 penal institution; or
2-1 (B) with the intent to establish, maintain, or
2-2 participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination;
2-3 (6) the person:
2-4 (A) while incarcerated for an offense under this
2-5 section or Section 19.02, murders another; or
2-6 (B) while serving a sentence of life
2-7 imprisonment or a term of 99 years for an offense under Section
2-8 20.04, 22.021, or 29.03, murders another;
2-9 (7) the person murders more than one person:
2-10 (A) during the same criminal transaction; or
2-11 (B) during different criminal transactions but
2-12 the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of
2-13 conduct; [or]
2-14 (8) the person murders an individual under six years
2-15 of age; or
2-16 (9) the person tortures the individual murdered:
2-17 (A) in the course of committing the murder; or
2-18 (B) during the same criminal transaction that
2-19 included the commission of the murder.
2-20 (d) In this section, "torture" means to cause an individual
2-21 to suffer severe physical pain in a cruel, inhumane, or brutal
2-22 manner.
2-23 SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only
2-24 to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
2-25 An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
2-26 covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed, and
2-27 the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For
3-1 purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the
3-2 effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
3-3 before that date.
3-4 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
3-5 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-6 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-7 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-8 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-9 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.