1-1     By:  Hill (Senate Sponsor - Carona)                   H.B. No. 1754
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 11, 1999;
 1-3     May 12, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Jurisprudence; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following
 1-5     vote:  Yeas 4, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to summoning prospective jurors to justice court.
 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10           SECTION 1.  Section 62.016(e), Government Code, is amended to
1-11     read as follows:
1-12           (e)  When impaneled, the prospective jurors constitute a
1-13     general jury panel for service as jurors in all justice, county,
1-14     and district courts in the county and shall be used interchangeably
1-15     in all of those courts.  A county may summon jurors chosen for
1-16     service under this section to the justice court in the manner
1-17     prescribed by Section  62.412.
1-18           SECTION 2.  Subchapter E, Chapter 62, Government Code, is
1-19     amended by adding Section 62.412 to read as follows:
1-20           Sec. 62.412.  SUMMONING PROSPECTIVE JURORS DIRECTLY TO
1-21     JUSTICE COURT.  (a)  A county that uses interchangeable juries
1-22     under Section 62.016 may summon a prospective juror to report
1-23     directly to a justice court in the precinct in which that person
1-24     resides.
1-25           (b)  The justice of the peace of the justice court to which
1-26     prospective jurors are summoned for jury service under this section
1-27     shall hear the excuses of the prospective jurors and swear them in
1-28     for jury service.
1-29           (c)  A justice of the peace may command the sheriff or
1-30     constable to immediately summon additional persons for jury service
1-31     in the justice court if the number of qualified jurors, including
1-32     persons summoned under Section 62.016, is less than the number
1-33     necessary for the justice court to conduct its proceedings.
1-34           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-35     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-36     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-37     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-38     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-39     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-40     passage, and it is so enacted.
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