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.
1-53 * * * * *