By:  Lucio, Haywood, Sibley                            S.B. No. 557
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the discovery of expert witnesses in a criminal trial.
 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-3           SECTION 1.  Article 39.14, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
 1-4     amended to read as follows:
 1-5           Art. 39.14.  DISCOVERY.  (a)  Upon motion of the defendant
 1-6     showing good cause therefor and upon notice to the other parties,
 1-7     the court in which an action is pending may order the State before
 1-8     or during trial of a criminal action therein pending or on trial to
 1-9     produce and permit the inspection and copying or photographing by
1-10     or on behalf of the defendant of any designated documents, papers,
1-11     written statement of the defendant, (except written statements of
1-12     witnesses and except the work product of counsel in the case and
1-13     their investigators and their notes or report), books, accounts,
1-14     letters, photographs, objects or tangible things not privileged,
1-15     which constitute or contain evidence material to any matter
1-16     involved in the action and which are in the possession, custody or
1-17     control of the State or any of its agencies.  The order shall
1-18     specify the time, place and manner of making the inspection and
1-19     taking the copies and photographs of any of the aforementioned
1-20     documents or tangible evidence; provided, however, that the rights
1-21     herein granted shall not extend to written communications between
1-22     the State or any of its agents or representatives or employees.
1-23     Nothing in this Act shall authorize the removal of such evidence
1-24     from the possession of the State, and any inspection shall be in
 2-1     the presence of a representative of the State.
 2-2           (b)  On motion of a party and on notice to the other parties,
 2-3     the court in which an action is pending may order one or more of
 2-4     the other parties to disclose to the party making the motion the
 2-5     name and address of each person the other party may use at trial to
 2-6     present evidence under Rules 702, 703, and 705, Texas Rules of
 2-7     Evidence.  The court shall specify in the order the time and manner
 2-8     in which the other party must make the disclosure to the moving
 2-9     party.
2-10           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-11           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-12     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-13     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-14     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-15     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.