1-1 By: Haggerty (Senate Sponsor - Jackson) H.B. No. 2593 1-2 (In the Senate - Received from the House April 19, 1999; 1-3 April 20, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on 1-4 Criminal Justice; May 10, 1999, reported favorably by the following 1-5 vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 10, 1999, sent to printer.) 1-6 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-7 AN ACT 1-8 relating to the prosecution of certain offenses related to taking 1-9 an alcoholic beverage into a correctional facility. 1-10 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-11 SECTION 1. Section 38.11, Penal Code, is amended by adding 1-12 Subsection (i) to read as follows: 1-13 (i) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under 1-14 Subsection (b) that the actor: 1-15 (1) is a duly authorized member of the clergy with 1-16 rights and privileges granted by an ordaining authority that 1-17 includes administration of a religious ritual or ceremony requiring 1-18 the presence or consumption of an alcoholic beverage; and 1-19 (2) takes four ounces or less of an alcoholic beverage 1-20 into the correctional facility and personally consumes all of the 1-21 alcoholic beverage or departs from the facility with any portion of 1-22 the beverage not consumed. 1-23 SECTION 2. (a) The change in law made by this Act applies 1-24 only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this 1-25 Act. For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before 1-26 the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs 1-27 before the effective date. 1-28 (b) An offense committed before the effective date of this 1-29 Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed, 1-30 and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. 1-31 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999. 1-32 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the 1-33 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 1-34 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 1-35 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 1-36 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended. 1-37 * * * * *