Bill Text: TX HB261 | 2019-2020 | 86th Legislature | Comm Sub
Bill Title: Relating to increasing the punishment for certain conduct constituting the offense of murder and providing for the prosecution of that conduct as capital murder.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2019-04-26 - Committee report sent to Calendars [HB261 Detail]
Download: Texas-2019-HB261-Comm_Sub.html
86R25903 AJZ-D | |||
By: Frank | H.B. No. 261 | ||
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 261: | |||
By: Bell of Kaufman | C.S.H.B. No. 261 |
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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; [ |
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(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. |