This website will be unavailable from Friday, April 26, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. through Monday, April 29, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. due to data center maintenance.


                                                                                


By:  Staples                                                      S.B. No. 431
	(In the Senate - Filed February 9, 2005; February 15, 2005, 
read first time and referred to Committee on Transportation and 
Homeland Security; March 14, 2005, reported adversely, with 
favorable Committee Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 9, Nays 
0; March 14, 2005, sent to printer.)


COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 431                                    By:  Staples

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the prosecution of the offense of criminal trespass on certain property. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. Subsection (b), Section 30.05, Penal Code, is amended by adding Subdivision (7) to read as follows: (7) "Critical infrastructure facility" means one of the following, if completely enclosed by a fence or other physical barrier that is obviously designed to exclude intruders: (A) a chemical manufacturing facility; (B) a refinery; (C) an electrical power generating facility, substation, or switching station; (D) a water intake structure or water treatment facility; (E) a natural gas transmission compressor station; (F) a liquid natural gas terminal or storage facility; (G) a telecommunications central switching office; or (H) a port, railroad switching yard, trucking terminal, or other freight transportation facility. SECTION 2. Section 30.05, Penal Code, is amended by amending Subsection (d) and by adding Subsection (g) to read as follows: (d) An offense under Subsection (e) is a Class C misdemeanor unless it is committed in a habitation or unless the actor carries a deadly weapon on or about the actor's person during the commission of the offense, in which event it is a Class A misdemeanor. An offense under Subsection (a) is a Class B misdemeanor, except that the offense is a Class A misdemeanor if: (1) the offense is committed: (A) in a habitation or a shelter center; [or] (B) on a Superfund site; or (C) on or in a critical infrastructure facility; or (2) the actor carries a deadly weapon on or about his person during the commission of the offense. (g) At the punishment stage of a trial in which the attorney representing the state seeks the increase in punishment provided by Subsection (d)(1)(C), the defendant may raise the issue as to whether the defendant entered or remained on or in a critical infrastructure facility as part of a lawful assembly or peaceful and orderly petition for the redress of grievances, including an assembly or petition addressing a labor dispute between an employer and employee. If the defendant proves the issue in the affirmative by a preponderance of the evidence, the increase in punishment provided by Subsection (d)(1)(C) does not apply. SECTION 3. The change in law made by this Act applies only to an offense committed on or after September 1, 2005. An offense committed before September 1, 2005, is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For purposes of this section, an offense was committed before September 1, 2005, if any element of the offense was committed before that date. SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.
* * * * *