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Amend Floor Amendment No. 1 to CSHB 498 by adding the
following appropriately numbered SECTIONS to the bill and
renumbering subsequent SECTIONS of the bill accordingly:
SECTION ____. Chapter 11, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
amended by adding Article 11.073 to read as follows:
Art. 11.073. PROCEDURES RELATED TO CERTAIN SCIENTIFIC
EVIDENCE. (a) This article applies to relevant scientific
evidence that:
(1) was not offered by the convicted person at the
convicted person's trial; or
(2) discredits scientific evidence presented by the
state at trial.
(b) For purposes of Section 4(a)(1), Article 11.07, Section
5(a)(1), Article 11.071, and Section 9(a), Article 11.072, a claim
in a subsequent application could not have been presented
previously in a timely initial application or in a previously
considered application if the convicting court determines that the
claim is based on relevant scientific evidence that was not
ascertainable through the exercise of reasonable diligence by the
convicted person before the date of trial.
(c) In determining whether relevant scientific evidence was
not ascertainable through the exercise of reasonable diligence by
the convicted person before the date of trial, the convicting court
or, in a proceeding under Article 11.071, the Court of Criminal
Appeals, shall consider whether the scientific knowledge or
technique on which the relevant scientific evidence is based has
changed, in a manner that is material to the person's conviction, in
the period between the date of the convicted person's trial and the
date of the subsequent application.
SECTION ____. The change in law made by this Act applies
only to an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed on or after
the effective date of this Act. An application for a writ of habeas
corpus filed before the effective date of this Act is governed by
the law in effect at the time the application was filed, and the
former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION ____. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.