By Shapleigh                                           S.B. No. 851
         76R791 JMC-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to an application for issuance of a subpoena.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Chapter 30, Civil Practice and Remedies Code, is
 1-5     amended by adding Section 30.011 to read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 30.011.  ELECTRONIC SUBPOENA APPLICATION.  (a)  In
 1-7     addition to any other procedure permitted under state law or by
 1-8     court rule, an application for issuance of a subpoena may be made
 1-9     by electronic means.
1-10           (b)  Notwithstanding Section 22.004, Government Code, this
1-11     section may not be modified or repealed by a rule adopted by the
1-12     supreme court.
1-13           SECTION 2.  Article 24.03(a), Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-14     amended to read as follows:
1-15           (a)  Before the clerk or his deputy shall be required or
1-16     permitted to issue a subpoena in any felony case pending in any
1-17     district or criminal district court of this State of which he is
1-18     clerk or deputy, the defendant or his attorney or the State's
1-19     attorney shall make an [written, sworn] application in writing or
1-20     by electronic means to such clerk for each witness desired.  Such
1-21     application shall state the name of each witness desired, the
1-22     location and vocation, if known, and that the testimony of said
1-23     witness is material to the State or to the defense.  The
1-24     application must be filed with the clerk [and placed with the
 2-1     papers in the cause] and made available to both the State and the
 2-2     defendant.  Except as provided by Subsection (b) [of this article],
 2-3     as far as is practical such clerk shall include in one subpoena the
 2-4     names of all witnesses for the State and for defendant, and such
 2-5     process shall show that the witnesses are summoned for the State or
 2-6     for the defendant.  When a witness has been served with a subpoena,
 2-7     attached or placed under bail at the instance of either party in a
 2-8     particular case, such execution of process shall inure to the
 2-9     benefit of the opposite party in such case in the event such
2-10     opposite party desires to use such witness on the trial of the
2-11     case, provided that when a witness has once been served with a
2-12     subpoena, no further subpoena shall be issued for said witness.
2-13           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-14     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-15     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-16     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-17     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-18     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-19     passage, and it is so enacted.