By Shields                                            H.B. No. 1791
         76R7582 JMC-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the expunction of arrest records and files when an
 1-3     indictment or information is dismissed or quashed.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Article 55.01(a), Code of Criminal Procedure, is
 1-6     amended to read as follows:
 1-7           (a)  A person who has been arrested for commission of either
 1-8     a felony or misdemeanor is entitled to have all records and files
 1-9     relating to the arrest expunged if:
1-10                 (1)  the person is tried for the offense for which the
1-11     person was arrested and is:
1-12                       (A)  acquitted by the trial court; or
1-13                       (B)  convicted and subsequently pardoned; or
1-14                 (2)  each of the following conditions exist:
1-15                       (A)  an indictment or information charging the
1-16     person [him] with commission of a felony has not been presented
1-17     against the person [him] for an offense arising out of the
1-18     transaction for which the person [he] was arrested or, if an
1-19     indictment or information charging the person [him] with commission
1-20     of a felony was presented, the indictment or information [it] has
1-21     been dismissed or quashed, and:
1-22                             (i)  the limitations  period expired before
1-23     the date on which a petition for expunction was filed under Article
1-24     55.02; or
 2-1                             (ii)  [and] the court finds that it was
 2-2     dismissed or quashed because the presentment had been made because
 2-3     of mistake, false information, or other similar reason indicating
 2-4     absence of probable cause at the time of the dismissal to believe
 2-5     the person committed the offense or because it was void;
 2-6                       (B)  the person [he] has been released and the
 2-7     charge, if any, has not resulted in a final conviction and is no
 2-8     longer pending and there was no court ordered community supervision
 2-9     [probation] under Article 42.12[, Code of Criminal Procedure, nor a
2-10     conditional discharge under Section 481.109, Health and Safety
2-11     Code]; and
2-12                       (C)  the person [he] has not been convicted of a
2-13     felony in the five years preceding the date of the arrest.
2-14           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies to
2-15     arrest records and files created before, on, or after the effective
2-16     date of this Act.
2-17           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-22     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-23     passage, and it is so enacted.