BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

 

H.B. 1125

By: Lavender

Criminal Jurisprudence

Committee Report (Unamended)

 

 

 

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

 

It has been reported that Texas counties bordering other states often have defendants in custody who require extradition to another state. While defendants are taken before a magistrate in these counties on a daily basis, a magistrate in a rural county is not always a court of record.  Because current law requires an arrested person awaiting extradition to be taken before a court of record in Texas, the transfer of defendants is often delayed and imposes additional costs on counties in housing the defendants until the defendants can be taken before a court of record. H.B. 1125 seeks to address these issues by authorizing the taking of a defendant pending extradition before a justice of the peace in a county that borders another state and allowing the defendant to voluntarily waive extradition proceedings in the presence of the justice of the peace.

 

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

 

H.B. 1125 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to authorize a person arrested under the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act pending extradition to another state to be taken before a justice of the peace serving a precinct that is located in a county bordering another state, as an alternative to being taken before a judge of a court of record in Texas.  The bill requires such a justice of the peace to direct the prisoner to a court of record for purposes of obtaining a writ of habeas corpus if the prisoner or the prisoner's counsel states the desire to test the legality of the arrest. The bill authorizes a prisoner to waive extradition proceedings in the presence of a justice of the peace serving a precinct that is located in a county bordering another state, as an alternative to waiving the proceedings in writing before a judge or any court of record, and requires such a justice of the peace, before the waiver is executed, to inform the prisoner of the prisoner's right to the issuance and service of an extradition warrant and right to obtain a writ of habeas corpus. 

 

EFFECTIVE DATE

 

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2013.