By Thompson                                           H.B. No. 1609
         76R4224 PEP-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to certain electronically created records used in a
 1-3     justice or municipal court.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Article 45.021, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
 1-6     amended by amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (f) to
 1-7     read as follows:
 1-8           (a)  Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a document
 1-9     that is issued by a justice or municipal court or a notice or
1-10     citation issued by a law enforcement officer may be created by
1-11     electronic means, including optical imaging, optical disk, or other
1-12     electronic reproduction technique that does not permit changes,
1-13     additions, or deletions to the originally created document.
1-14           (f)  A statutory requirement that a document contain the
1-15     signature of any person, including a judge, clerk of the court, or
1-16     defendant, is satisfied if the document contains that signature as
1-17     captured on an electronic device.
1-18           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-19     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-20     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-21     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-22     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-23     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-24     passage, and it is so enacted.