1-1     By:  Brown                                              S.B. No. 70
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed December 2, 1998; January 26, 1999,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
 1-4     February 22, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas
 1-5     7, Nays 0; February 22, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the statute of limitations for the purpose of
 1-9     prosecuting certain offenses under the Tax Code.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Article 12.01, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-12     amended to read as follows:
1-13           Art. 12.01.  FELONIES.  Except as provided in Article 12.03,
1-14     felony indictments may be presented within these limits, and not
1-15     afterward:
1-16                 (1)  no limitation:  murder and manslaughter;
1-17                 (2)  ten years from the date of the commission of the
1-18     offense:
1-19                       (A)  theft of any estate, real, personal or
1-20     mixed, by an executor, administrator, guardian or trustee, with
1-21     intent to defraud any creditor, heir, legatee, ward, distributee,
1-22     beneficiary or settlor of a trust interested in such estate;
1-23                       (B)  theft by a public servant of government
1-24     property over which he exercises control in his official capacity;
1-25                       (C)  forgery or the uttering, using or passing of
1-26     forged instruments; or
1-27                       (D)  indecency with a child under Section
1-28     21.11(a)(2), Penal Code;
1-29                 (3)  seven years from the date of the commission of the
1-30     offense:
1-31                       (A)  misapplication of fiduciary property or
1-32     property of a financial institution;
1-33                       (B)  securing execution of document by deception;
1-34     or
1-35                       (C)  a violation under Sections 153.403(20)-(33),
1-36     Tax Code;
1-37                 (4)  five years from the date of the commission of the
1-38     offense:
1-39                       (A)  theft, burglary, robbery;
1-40                       (B)  arson; or
1-41                       (C)  sexual assault, except as provided in
1-42     Subsection (5) of this article;
1-43                 (5)  ten years from the 18th birthday of the victim of
1-44     the offense:
1-45                       (A)  indecency with a child under Section
1-46     21.11(a)(1), Penal Code;
1-47                       (B)  sexual assault under Section 22.011(a)(2),
1-48     Penal Code; or
1-49                       (C)  aggravated sexual assault under Section
1-50     22.021(a)(1)(B), Penal Code; or
1-51                 (6)  three years from the date of the commission of the
1-52     offense:  all other felonies.
1-53           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act does not apply
1-54     to an offense if the prosecution of the offense became barred by
1-55     limitation before the effective date of this Act.  The prosecution
1-56     of that offense remains barred as though this Act had not taken
1-57     effect.
1-58           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-59           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-60     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-61     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-62     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-63     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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