1-1     By:  Bernsen                                           S.B. No. 480
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed February 11, 1999; February 15, 1999,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
 1-4     April 23, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 5,
 1-5     Nays 0; April 23, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to the penalty for evading arrest or detention.
 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 38.04, Penal Code, is
1-11     amended to read as follows:
1-12           (b)  An offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor,
1-13     except that the offense is:
1-14                 (1)  a state jail felony [Class A misdemeanor] if the
1-15     actor uses a vehicle while the actor is in flight and the actor has
1-16     not been previously convicted under this section;
1-17                 (2)  a [state jail] felony of the third degree if:
1-18                       (A)  the actor uses a vehicle while the actor is
1-19     in flight and the actor has been previously convicted under this
1-20     section; or
1-21                       (B) [(3)  a felony of the third degree if]
1-22     another suffers serious bodily injury as a direct result of an
1-23     attempt by the officer from whom the actor is fleeing to apprehend
1-24     the actor while the actor is in flight; or
1-25                 (3) [(4)]  a felony of the second degree if another
1-26     suffers death as a direct result of an attempt by the officer from
1-27     whom the actor is fleeing to apprehend the actor while the actor is
1-28     in flight.
1-29           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
1-30     to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
1-31     An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
1-32     covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed, and
1-33     the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.  For
1-34     purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the
1-35     effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
1-36     before that date.
1-37           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-38           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-39     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-40     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-41     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-42     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-43                                  * * * * *