77R13081 JAT-D                           
         By Tillery                                            H.B. No. 2063
         Substitute the following for H.B. No. 2063:
         By Hinojosa                                       C.S.H.B. No. 2063
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to jury instructions in a criminal trial.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1. Chapter 36, Code of Criminal Procedure, is amended
 1-5     by adding Article 36.20 to read as follows:
 1-6           Art. 36.20.  INSTRUCTION TO JURY: CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. In
 1-7     each misdemeanor or felony trial in which the State relies on
 1-8     circumstantial evidence, the court shall charge the jury in writing
 1-9     as follows:
1-10           "You are instructed that in this case the State relies on
1-11     circumstantial evidence for adjudication or conviction.
1-12           "In order to warrant a conviction of a crime on
1-13     circumstantial evidence, each fact necessary to the conclusion
1-14     sought to be established must be proved by competent evidence,
1-15     beyond a reasonable doubt; all the facts necessary to a conclusion
1-16     of guilt must be consistent with each other and, taken together,
1-17     must be of a conclusive nature, leading on the whole to a
1-18     satisfactory conclusion and producing, in effect, a reasonable and
1-19     moral certainty that the accused, and no other person, committed
1-20     the offense charged.
1-21           "But in such cases it is not sufficient that the
1-22     circumstances coincide with, account for, and therefore render
1-23     probable the guilt of the accused person.  They must exclude, to a
1-24     moral certainty, every other reasonable hypothesis except the
 2-1     accused person's guilt; and unless they do so beyond a reasonable
 2-2     doubt, you will find the accused person not guilty."
 2-3           SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2001.