By: Moody (Senate Sponsor - Ellis) H.B. No. 510

(In the Senate - Received from the House May 7, 2015; May 11, 2015, read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice; May 21, 2015, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0; May 21, 2015, sent to printer.) Click here to see the committee vote

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to disclosure of certain information about expert witnesses in a criminal case.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Article 39.14(b), Code of Criminal Procedure, is amended to read as follows:

(b) On [motion of] a party's request made not later than the 30th day before the date that jury selection in the trial is scheduled to begin or, in a trial without a jury, the presentation of evidence is scheduled to begin, the party receiving the request shall [party and on notice to the other parties, the court in which an action is pending may order one or more of the other parties to] disclose to the requesting party [making the motion] the name and address of each person the disclosing [other] party may use at trial to present evidence under Rules 702, 703, and 705, Texas Rules of Evidence. Except as otherwise provided by this subsection, the disclosure must be made in writing in hard copy form or by electronic means [The court shall specify in the order the time and manner in which the other party must make the disclosure to the moving party, but in specifying the time in which the other party shall make disclosure the court shall require the other party to make the disclosure] not later than the 20th day before the date that jury selection in the trial is scheduled to begin or, in a trial without a jury, the presentation of evidence is scheduled to begin. On motion of a party and on notice to the other parties, the court may order an earlier time at which one or more of the other parties must make the disclosure to the requesting party [begins].

SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies to the prosecution of an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act. The prosecution of an offense committed before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs before the effective date.

SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.

* * * * *