86R25903 AJZ-D
 
  By: Fallon, et al. S.B. No. 719
 
  (Frank)
 
  Substitute the following for S.B. No. 719:  No.
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to increasing the punishment for certain conduct
  constituting the offense of murder and providing for the
  prosecution of that conduct as capital murder.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  This Act shall be known as Lauren's Law.
         SECTION 2.  Section 19.03(a), Penal Code, is amended to read
  as follows:
         (a)  A person commits an offense if the person commits murder
  as defined under Section 19.02(b)(1) and:
               (1)  the person murders a peace officer or fireman who
  is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the
  person knows is a peace officer or fireman;
               (2)  the person intentionally commits the murder in the
  course of committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, burglary,
  robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, obstruction or
  retaliation, or terroristic threat under Section 22.07(a)(1), (3),
  (4), (5), or (6);
               (3)  the person commits the murder for remuneration or
  the promise of remuneration or employs another to commit the murder
  for remuneration or the promise of remuneration;
               (4)  the person commits the murder while escaping or
  attempting to escape from a penal institution;
               (5)  the person, while incarcerated in a penal
  institution, murders another:
                     (A)  who is employed in the operation of the penal
  institution; or
                     (B)  with the intent to establish, maintain, or
  participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination;
               (6)  the person:
                     (A)  while incarcerated for an offense under this
  section or Section 19.02, murders another; or
                     (B)  while serving a sentence of life imprisonment
  or a term of 99 years for an offense under Section 20.04, 22.021, or
  29.03, murders another;
               (7)  the person murders more than one person:
                     (A)  during the same criminal transaction; or
                     (B)  during different criminal transactions but
  the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of
  conduct;
               (8)  the person murders an individual under 10 years of
  age; [or]
               (9)  the person murders an individual 10 years of age or
  older but younger than 15 years of age; or
               (10)  the person murders another person in retaliation
  for or on account of the service or status of the other person as a
  judge or justice of the supreme court, the court of criminal
  appeals, a court of appeals, a district court, a criminal district
  court, a constitutional county court, a statutory county court, a
  justice court, or a municipal court.
         SECTION 3.  Section 1, Article 37.071, Code of Criminal
  Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
         Sec. 1.  (a) If a defendant is found guilty in a capital
  felony case in which the state does not seek the death penalty, the
  judge shall sentence the defendant to life imprisonment or to life
  imprisonment without parole as required by Section 12.31, Penal
  Code.
         (b)  A defendant who is found guilty of an offense under
  Section 19.03(a)(9), Penal Code, may not be sentenced to death, and
  the state may not seek the death penalty in any case based solely on
  an offense under that subdivision.
         SECTION 4.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
  to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
  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 was committed before the
  effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
  before that date.
         SECTION 5.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.