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A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
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AN ACT
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relating to the prosecution of the offense of injury to a child, |
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elderly individual, or disabled individual. |
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BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
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SECTION 1. Sections 22.04(d) and (i), Penal Code, are |
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amended to read as follows: |
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(d) For purposes of an omission that causes a condition |
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described by Subsection (a)(1), (2), or (3), the actor has assumed |
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care, custody, or control if the actor [he] has by act, words, or |
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course of conduct acted so as to cause a reasonable person to |
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conclude that the actor [he] has accepted responsibility for |
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protection, food, shelter, or [and] medical care for a child, |
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elderly individual, or disabled individual. For purposes of an |
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omission that causes a condition described by Subsection (a-1)(1), |
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(2), or (3), the actor acting during the actor's capacity as owner, |
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operator, or employee of a group home or facility described by |
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Subsection (a-1) is considered to have accepted responsibility for |
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protection, food, shelter, or [and] medical care for the child, |
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elderly individual, or disabled individual who is a resident of the |
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group home or facility. |
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(i) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under |
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Subsection (b)(2) that before the offense the actor: |
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(1) notified in person the child, elderly individual, |
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or disabled individual that the actor would no longer provide [any |
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of] the applicable care described by Subsection (d), and notified |
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in writing the parents or a person, other than the actor, acting in |
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loco parentis to the child, elderly individual, or disabled |
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individual that the actor would no longer provide [any of] the |
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applicable care described by Subsection (d); or |
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(2) notified in writing the Department of Family and |
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Protective Services that the actor would no longer provide [any of] |
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the applicable care described by Subsection (d). |
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SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only |
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to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act. |
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An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is |
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governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed, |
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and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For |
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purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the |
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effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred |
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before that date. |
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SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021. |