1-1     By:  Carter (Senate Sponsor - Nixon)                  H.B. No. 2130
 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 disposition of out-of-county crimes.
 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10           SECTION 1.  Article 4.12, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-11     amended to read as follows:
1-12           Art. 4.12.  Misdemeanor cases; precinct in which defendant to
1-13     be tried in justice court.  (a)  A misdemeanor case to be tried in
1-14     justice court shall be tried in the precinct in which the offense
1-15     was committed, or in which the defendant or any of the defendants
1-16     reside, or, with the written consent of the State and each
1-17     defendant or his attorney, in any other precinct within the county;
1-18     provided that in any misdemeanor case in which the offense was
1-19     committed in a precinct where there is no qualified justice
1-20     precinct court, then trial shall be had in the next adjacent
1-21     precinct in the same county which may have a duly qualified justice
1-22     precinct court, or in the precinct in which the defendant may
1-23     reside.
1-24           (b)  In [; provided that in] any such misdemeanor case, when
1-25     [upon disqualification] for any reason [of] all justices of the
1-26     peace in the precinct where the offense was committed are
1-27     disqualified, such case may be tried in the next adjoining precinct
1-28     in the same county, having a duly qualified justice of the peace.
1-29           (c)  A defendant who is taken before a magistrate in
1-30     accordance with Article 15.18 may waive trial by jury and enter a
1-31     plea of guilty or nolo contendere.  The magistrate taking the plea
1-32     may set a fine, give credit for time served, determine indigency,
1-33     and discharge the defendant, as the case may be.
1-34           SECTION 2.  Article 15.18, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-35     amended to read as follows:
1-36           Art. 15.18.  ARREST FOR OUT-OF-COUNTY OFFENSE.  A person
1-37     [One] arrested under a warrant issued in a county other than the
1-38     one in which the person is arrested shall be taken before a
1-39     magistrate of the county where the arrest takes place who shall:
1-40                 (1)  take bail, if allowed by law, and immediately
1-41     transmit the bond taken to the court having jurisdiction of the
1-42     offense; or
1-43                 (2)  in the case of a person arrested under warrant for
1-44     an offense punishable by fine only, accept a plea of guilty or nolo
1-45     contendere, set a fine, give credit for time served, or determine
1-46     indigency, as the case may indicate.
1-47           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-48           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-49     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-50     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-51     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-52     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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