1-1     By:  Duncan                                            S.B. No. 217
 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 exemption of certain persons from grand jury
 1-9     service.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Article 19.25, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-12     amended to read as follows:
1-13           Art. 19.25.  EXCUSES FROM SERVICE.  Any person summoned who
1-14     does not possess the requisite qualifications shall be excused by
1-15     the court from serving.  The following qualified persons may be
1-16     excused from grand jury service:
1-17                 (1)  a person older than 70 [65] years;
1-18                 (2)  a person responsible for the care of a child
1-19     younger than 18 years;
1-20                 (3)  a student of a public or private secondary school;
1-21                 (4)  a person enrolled and in actual attendance at an
1-22     institution of higher education; and
1-23                 (5)  any other person that the court determines has a
1-24     reasonable excuse from service.
1-25           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999, and
1-26     applies only to an exemption from grand jury service for persons
1-27     summoned on or after that date to appear for service.  An exemption
1-28     from grand jury service for persons summoned before the effective
1-29     date of this Act to appear for service is covered by the law in
1-30     effect when the person was summoned, and that law is continued in
1-31     effect for that purpose.
1-32           SECTION 3.  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                                  * * * * *