By:  Armbrister                                       S.B. No. 1125
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to mediation in certain criminal cases.
 1-2           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-3           SECTION 1.  Article 26.13, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
 1-4     amended by adding Subsection (h) to read as follows:
 1-5           (h)  Notwithstanding this article, a court shall not order
 1-6     the state or any of its prosecuting attorneys to participate in
 1-7     mediation, dispute resolution, arbitration, or other similar
 1-8     procedures in relation to a felony criminal prosecution unless upon
 1-9     written consent of the state.
1-10           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-11     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-12     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-13     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-14     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-15     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-16     passage, and it is so enacted.