By: Shapleigh S.B. No. 851
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to an application for issuance of a subpoena.
1-2 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-3 SECTION 1. Chapter 30, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is
1-4 amended by adding Section 30.011 to read as follows:
1-5 Sec. 30.011. ELECTRONIC SUBPOENA APPLICATION. In addition
1-6 to any other procedure permitted under state law or by court rule,
1-7 an application for issuance of a subpoena may be made by electronic
1-8 means.
1-9 SECTION 2. Subsection (a), Article 24.03, Code of Criminal
1-10 Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
1-11 (a) Before the clerk or his deputy shall be required or
1-12 permitted to issue a subpoena in any felony case pending in any
1-13 district or criminal district court of this State of which he is
1-14 clerk or deputy, the defendant or his attorney or the State's
1-15 attorney shall make an [written, sworn] application in writing or
1-16 by electronic means to such clerk for each witness desired. Such
1-17 application shall state the name of each witness desired, the
1-18 location and vocation, if known, and that the testimony of said
1-19 witness is material to the State or to the defense. The
1-20 application must be filed with the clerk [and placed with the
1-21 papers in the cause] and made available to both the State and the
1-22 defendant. Except as provided by Subsection (b) [of this article],
1-23 as far as is practical such clerk shall include in one subpoena the
1-24 names of all witnesses for the State and for defendant, and such
2-1 process shall show that the witnesses are summoned for the State or
2-2 for the defendant. When a witness has been served with a subpoena,
2-3 attached or placed under bail at the instance of either party in a
2-4 particular case, such execution of process shall inure to the
2-5 benefit of the opposite party in such case in the event such
2-6 opposite party desires to use such witness on the trial of the
2-7 case, provided that when a witness has once been served with a
2-8 subpoena, no further subpoena shall be issued for said witness.
2-9 SECTION 3. The importance of this legislation and the
2-10 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-11 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-12 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-13 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-14 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-15 passage, and it is so enacted.