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.