BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.S.B. 623

By: Whitmire

Criminal Jurisprudence

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

There is concern that under current law, there is no means to prosecute a district or county attorney for a criminal act committed within the district or county attorney's jurisdiction.  C.S.S.B. 623 seeks to address this issue by providing that a district or county attorney may be disqualified from representing the state if the district or county attorney is the subject of an official criminal investigation, among other provisions.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

C.S.S.B. 623 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to require a judge of a court in which a district or county attorney represents the state to declare the district or county attorney disqualified for purposes of provisions of law relating to an attorney pro tem on a showing that the attorney is the subject of a criminal investigation by a law enforcement agency if that investigation is based on credible evidence of criminal misconduct for an offense that is within the attorney's authority to prosecute. The bill specifies that a disqualification under the bill's provisions applies only to the attorney's access to the criminal investigation pending against the attorney and to any prosecution of a criminal charge resulting from that investigation.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2011.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.S.B. 623 differs from the original by specifying that the criminal investigation that serves as the basis for the disqualification of a district or county attorney for purposes of provisions of law relating to an attorney pro tem is an investigation conducted by a law enforcement agency under certain conditions, whereas the original does not specify an entity by which the investigation is conducted.