By Shapiro                                            S.B. No. 1830
         76R10234 GWK-F                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the prosecution and punishment of certain domestic
 1-3     violence offenses.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 22.01(b), Penal Code, is amended to read
 1-6     as follows:
 1-7           (b)  An offense under Subsection (a)(1) is a Class A
 1-8     misdemeanor, except that the offense is:
 1-9                 (1)  a felony of the third degree if the offense is
1-10     committed against:
1-11                       (A)  a person the actor knows is a public servant
1-12     while the public servant is lawfully discharging an official duty,
1-13     or in retaliation or on account of an exercise of official power or
1-14     performance of an official duty as a public servant; or
1-15                       (B)  a family member and the offense was
1-16     committed in the presence of another family member who was at the
1-17     time of the commission of the offense a child younger than 17 years
1-18     of age; or
1-19                 (2)  a state jail felony if it is shown on the trial of
1-20     the offense that the offense was committed against a family member
1-21     and that the defendant has been previously convicted of an offense
1-22     against a family member under this section two or more times.
1-23           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
1-24     only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
 2-1     Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
 2-2     the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
 2-3     before the effective date.
 2-4           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
 2-5     Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
 2-6     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
 2-7           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-8           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-9     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-10     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-11     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-12     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.