79R2903 KEL-D

By:  Hegar                                                        H.B. No. 796



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the provision of crime victims' compensation to a 
victim or a dependent of a victim.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Article 56.32(a)(5), Code of Criminal Procedure, 
is amended to read as follows:
		(5)  "Dependent" means:                                                       
			(A)  a surviving spouse;                                                     
			(B)  a person who is a dependent, within the 
meaning of the Internal Revenue Code, of a victim;  or [and]
			(C)  a posthumous child of a deceased victim.                                
	SECTION 2.  Article 56.32(a)(9), Code of Criminal Procedure, 
as amended by Section 1, Chapter 1286, and Section 2, Chapter 1303, 
Acts of the 78th Legislature, Regular Session, 2003, is reenacted 
and amended to read as follows:
		(9)  "Pecuniary loss" means the amount of expense 
reasonably and necessarily incurred as a result of personal injury 
or death for:
			(A)  medical, hospital, nursing, or psychiatric 
care or counseling, or physical therapy;
			(B)  actual loss of past earnings and anticipated 
loss of future earnings and necessary travel expenses because of:
				(i)  a disability resulting from the 
personal injury;                     
				(ii)  the receipt of medically indicated 
services related to the disability resulting from the personal 
injury;  or
				(iii)  participation in or attendance at 
investigative, prosecutorial, or judicial processes related to the 
criminally injurious conduct and participation in or attendance at 
any postconviction or postadjudication proceeding relating to 
criminally injurious conduct;
			(C)  care of a child or dependent;                                           
			(D)  funeral and burial expenses, including, for 
an immediate family member or household member of the victim, the 
necessary expenses of traveling to and attending the funeral;
			(E)  loss of support to a dependent or, if the loss 
of support is the direct result of the arrest of a person suspected 
of having engaged in the criminally injurious conduct, to a victim 
of family violence or a victim of sexual assault, consistent with 
Article 56.41(b)(5);
			(F)  reasonable and necessary costs of cleaning 
the crime scene;           
			(G)  reasonable replacement costs for clothing, 
bedding, or property of the victim seized as evidence or rendered 
unusable as a result of the criminal investigation;
			(H)  reasonable and necessary costs, as provided 
by Article 56.42(d), incurred by a victim of family violence or a 
victim of sexual assault who is assaulted in the victim's place of 
residence for relocation and housing rental assistance payments;  
[and]
			(I)  for an immediate family member or household 
member of a deceased victim, bereavement leave of not more than 10 
work days; and [.]
			(J) [(I)]  reasonable and necessary costs of 
traveling to and from a place of execution for the purpose of 
witnessing the execution, including one night's lodging near the 
place at which the execution is conducted.
	SECTION 3.  The changes in law made by this Act apply only to 
a pecuniary loss arising from the personal injury or death of a 
victim of a criminal offense committed or a violation that occurs on 
or after the effective date of this Act.  A pecuniary loss arising 
from the personal injury or death of a victim of a criminal offense 
committed or a violation that occurred before the effective date of 
this Act is covered by the law in effect when the criminal offense 
was committed or the violation occurred, and the former law is 
continued in effect for that purpose.  For purposes of this section, 
a criminal offense was committed or a violation occurred before the 
effective date of this Act if any element of the offense or 
violation occurred before that date.
	SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.