1-1     By:  Armbrister                                       S.B. No. 1125
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 10, 1999; March 11, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
 1-4     April 19, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 6,
 1-5     Nays 1; April 19, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to mediation in criminal cases.
 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10           SECTION 1.  Article 26.13, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
1-11     amended by adding Subsection (h) to read as follows:
1-12           (h)  Notwithstanding this article, a court shall not order
1-13     the state or any of its prosecuting attorneys to participate in
1-14     mediation, dispute resolution, arbitration, or other similar
1-15     procedures in relation to a criminal prosecution unless upon
1-16     written consent of the state.
1-17           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-18     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-19     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-20     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-21     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-22     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-23     passage, and it is so enacted.
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