By West                                                 S.B. No. 49
         76R1901 GWK-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the prosecution as a capital offense of a murder
 1-3     motivated by bias or prejudice.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 19.03(a), Penal Code, is amended to read
 1-6     as follows:
 1-7           (a)  A person commits an offense if he commits murder as
 1-8     defined under Section 19.02(b)(1) and:
 1-9                 (1)  the person murders a peace officer or fireman who
1-10     is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the
1-11     person knows is a peace officer or fireman;
1-12                 (2)  the person intentionally commits the murder in the
1-13     course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, burglary,
1-14     robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, or obstruction or
1-15     retaliation;
1-16                 (3)  the person commits the murder for remuneration or
1-17     the promise of remuneration or employs another to commit the murder
1-18     for remuneration or the promise of remuneration;
1-19                 (4)  the person commits the murder while escaping or
1-20     attempting to escape from a penal institution;
1-21                 (5)  the person, while incarcerated in a penal
1-22     institution, murders another:
1-23                       (A)  who is employed in the operation of the
1-24     penal institution; or
 2-1                       (B)  with the intent to establish, maintain, or
 2-2     participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination;
 2-3                 (6)  the person:
 2-4                       (A)  while incarcerated for an offense under this
 2-5     section or Section 19.02, murders another; or
 2-6                       (B)  while serving a sentence of life
 2-7     imprisonment or a term of 99 years for an offense under Section
 2-8     20.04, 22.021, or 29.03, murders another;
 2-9                 (7)  the person murders more than one person:
2-10                       (A)  during the same criminal transaction; or
2-11                       (B)  during different criminal transactions but
2-12     the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of
2-13     conduct;  [or]
2-14                 (8)  the person murders an individual under six years
2-15     of age; or
2-16                 (9)  the person murders an individual selected because
2-17     of the person's bias or prejudice against a group.
2-18           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
2-19     only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
2-20     Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
2-21     the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
2-22     before the effective date.
2-23           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
2-24     Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
2-25     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
2-26           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-27           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 3-1     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 3-2     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-3     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-4     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.