S.B. No. 1791




AN ACT

relating to the prosecution of the offense of capital murder.                 
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 19.03, Penal Code, is 
amended to read as follows:
	(a)  A person commits an offense if the person commits murder 
as defined under Section 19.02(b)(1) and:
		(1)  the person murders a peace officer or fireman who 
is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the 
person knows is a peace officer or fireman;
		(2)  the person intentionally commits the murder in the 
course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, burglary, 
robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, obstruction or 
retaliation, or terroristic threat under Section 22.07(a)(1), (3), 
(4), (5), or (6);
		(3)  the person commits the murder for remuneration or 
the promise of remuneration or employs another to commit the murder 
for remuneration or the promise of remuneration;
		(4)  the person commits the murder while escaping or 
attempting to escape from a penal institution;
		(5)  the person, while incarcerated in a penal 
institution, murders another:
			(A)  who is employed in the operation of the penal 
institution; or         
			(B)  with the intent to establish, maintain, or 
participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination;
		(6)  the person:                                                              
			(A)  while incarcerated for an offense under this 
section or Section 19.02, murders another; or
			(B)  while serving a sentence of life imprisonment 
or a term of 99 years for an offense under Section 20.04, 22.021, or 
29.03, murders another;
		(7)  the person murders more than one person:                                 
			(A)  during the same criminal transaction; or                                
			(B)  during different criminal transactions but 
the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of 
conduct; [or]
		(8)  the person murders an individual under six years 
of age; or     
		(9)  the person murders another person in retaliation 
for or on account of the service or status of the other person as a 
judge or justice of the supreme court, the court of criminal 
appeals, a court of appeals, a district court, a criminal district 
court, a constitutional county court, a statutory county court, a 
justice court, or a municipal court.
	SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.                           

                                                                              




______________________________    ______________________________
President of the Senate             Speaker of the House
	I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1791 passed the Senate on 
May 3, 2005, by the following vote:  Yeas 31, Nays 0.




______________________________ 
   Secretary of the Senate             
	I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1791 passed the House on 
May 19, 2005, by a non-record vote.




______________________________ 
   Chief Clerk of the House            



Approved:


______________________________ 
            Date



______________________________ 
          Governor