Honorable Pete Gallego, Chair, House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence
FROM:
John S O'Brien, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB2323 by Raymond (Relating to the punishment for the offense of manslaughter.), As Introduced
The bill would amend the Penal Code as it relates to the punishment for the offense of manslaughter. The provisions of the bill that create new punishment or enhance existing punishment for criminal offenses are the subject of this analysis. Under the provisions of the bill, delivering a controlled substance to someone who then consumes that substance without altering the substance which results in the death of that person as a result of consuming that controlled substance would be a first degree felony.
A felony of the first degree is punishable by confinement in prison for life or a term from 5 to 99 years and, in addition to confinement, an optional fine not to exceed $10,000.
Creating a penalty for any criminal offense is expected to result in increased demands upon the correctional resources of counties or of the State due to longer terms of probation, or longer terms of confinement in county jails or prison. Although the number of times someone delivered a controlled substance to someone who then consumed that substance without altering it and died as a result of consuming that controlled substance is unknown, it is assumed the number of offenders convicted under this statute would not result in a significant impact on the programs and workload of State corrections agencies or on the demand for resources and services of those agencies.