1-1     By:  Duncan                                            S.B. No. 216
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed January 21, 1999; January 28, 1999,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
 1-4     February 18, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas
 1-5     7, Nays 0; February 18, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the disqualification of a person convicted of theft
 1-9     from selection or service as a grand juror.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Article 19.08, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-12     amended to read as follows:
1-13           Art. 19.08.  QUALIFICATIONS.  No person shall be selected or
1-14     serve as a grand juror who does not possess the following
1-15     qualifications:
1-16                 1.  He must be a citizen of the state, and of the
1-17     county in which he is to serve, and be qualified under the
1-18     Constitution and laws to vote in said county, provided that his
1-19     failure to register to vote shall not be held to disqualify him in
1-20     this instance;
1-21                 2.  He must be of sound mind and good moral character;
1-22                 3.  He must be able to read and write;
1-23                 4.  He must not have been convicted of theft or of any
1-24     felony;
1-25                 5.  He must not be under indictment or other legal
1-26     accusation for theft or of any felony;
1-27                 6.  He must not be related within the third degree of
1-28     consanguinity or second degree of affinity, as determined under
1-29     Chapter 573, Government Code, to any person selected to serve or
1-30     serving on the same grand jury;
1-31                 7.  He must not have served as grand juror or jury
1-32     commissioner in the year before the date on which the term of court
1-33     for which he has been selected as grand juror begins;
1-34                 8.  He must not be a complainant in any matter to be
1-35     heard by the grand jury during the term of court for which he has
1-36     been selected as a grand juror.
1-37           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
1-38     only to grand juror selections made on or after the effective date
1-39     of this Act.  For purposes of this section, a selection is made
1-40     before the effective date of this Act if any element of the
1-41     selection process occurs before the effective date.
1-42           (b)  A selection made before the effective date of this Act
1-43     is covered by the law in effect when the selection process began,
1-44     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-45           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-46           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-47     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-48     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-49     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-50     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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