By: Bernsen S.B. No. 480
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the penalty for evading arrest or detention.
1-2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-3 SECTION 1. Subsection (b), Section 38.04, Penal Code, is
1-4 amended to read as follows:
1-5 (b) An offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor,
1-6 except that the offense is:
1-7 (1) a state jail felony [Class A misdemeanor] if the
1-8 actor uses a vehicle while the actor is in flight and the actor has
1-9 not been previously convicted under this section;
1-10 (2) a [state jail] felony of the third degree if:
1-11 (A) the actor uses a vehicle while the actor is
1-12 in flight and the actor has been previously convicted under this
1-13 section; or
1-14 (B) [(3) a felony of the third degree if]
1-15 another suffers serious bodily injury as a direct result of an
1-16 attempt by the officer from whom the actor is fleeing to apprehend
1-17 the actor while the actor is in flight; or
1-18 (3) [(4)] a felony of the second degree if another
1-19 suffers death as a direct result of an attempt by the officer from
1-20 whom the actor is fleeing to apprehend the actor while the actor is
1-21 in flight.
1-22 SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only
1-23 to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
1-24 An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
2-1 covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed, and
2-2 the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For
2-3 purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the
2-4 effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
2-5 before that date.
2-6 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-7 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
2-8 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-9 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-10 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-11 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.