By Haggerty                                           H.B. No. 2593
         76R8911 GWK-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the prosecution of certain offenses related to taking
 1-3     an alcoholic beverage into a correctional facility.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 38.11, Penal Code, is amended by adding
 1-6     Subsection (i) to read as follows:
 1-7           (i)  It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under
 1-8     Subsection (b) that the actor:
 1-9                 (1)  is a duly authorized member of the clergy with
1-10     rights and privileges granted by an ordaining authority that
1-11     includes administration of a religious ritual or ceremony requiring
1-12     the presence or consumption of an alcoholic beverage; and
1-13                 (2)  takes four ounces or less of an alcoholic beverage
1-14     into the correctional facility and personally consumes all of the
1-15     alcoholic beverage or departs from the facility with any portion of
1-16     the beverage not consumed.
1-17           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
1-18     only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
1-19     Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
1-20     the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
1-21     before the effective date.
1-22           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
1-23     Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
1-24     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
 2-1           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-2           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-3     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-4     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-5     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-6     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.