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1-11 section may not be modified or repealed by a rule adopted by the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.