Bill Text: TX HB266 | 2015-2016 | 84th Legislature | Introduced


Bill Title: Relating to offenses involving violating the civil rights of a person in custody and engaging in improper sexual activity with a person in custody; providing certain enhanced penalties.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-03-25 - Left pending in committee [HB266 Detail]

Download: Texas-2015-HB266-Introduced.html
  84R1225 ADM-D
 
  By: Miles H.B. No. 266
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to offenses involving violating the civil rights of a
  person in custody and engaging in improper sexual activity with a
  person in custody; providing certain enhanced penalties.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 39.04, Penal Code, is amended by
  amending Subsections (b) and (c) and adding Subsections (b-1),
  (c-1), and (c-2) to read as follows:
         (b)  An offense under Subsection (a)(1) is a Class A
  misdemeanor.  An offense under Subsection (a)(2) is a state jail
  felony, except that an offense under Subsection (a)(2) is:
               (1)  a felony of the second degree if the offense is
  committed against:
                     (A) [(1)]  an individual in the custody of the
  Texas Juvenile Justice Department [Youth Commission]; or
                     (B) [(2)]  a juvenile offender detained in or
  committed to a correctional facility the operation of which is
  financed primarily with state funds; or
               (2)  a felony of the first degree if, during a period
  that is 30 or more days in duration and regardless of whether the
  conduct involves one or more victims, the person on two or more
  occasions engages in conduct constituting an offense under
  Subsection (a)(2) against:
                     (A)  an individual in the custody of the Texas
  Juvenile Justice Department; or
                     (B)  a juvenile offender detained in or committed
  to a correctional facility the operation of which is financed
  primarily with state funds.
         (b-1)  If a jury is the trier of fact in a case in which the
  state seeks to establish punishment under Subsection (b)(2),
  members of the jury are not required to agree unanimously on which
  specific conduct engaged in by the defendant constituted an offense
  under Subsection (a)(2) or on which exact date or dates that conduct
  occurred.  The jury must agree unanimously that the defendant,
  during a period that is 30 or more days in duration, on two or more
  occasions engaged in conduct that constituted an offense under
  Subsection (a)(2).
         (c)  This section shall not preclude prosecution for any
  other offense set out in this code. If conduct constituting an
  offense under this section also constitutes an offense under
  another section of this code, the actor may be prosecuted under
  either section or under both sections.
         (c-1)  A defendant may not be convicted in the same criminal
  action of another offense the victim of which is an alleged victim
  of an offense under Subsection (a)(2) for which the state seeks to
  establish punishment under Subsection (b)(2), and an element of
  which is any act or conduct that is alleged as an element of the
  offense under Subsection (a)(2) for which the state seeks to
  establish punishment under Subsection (b)(2), unless the other
  offense:
               (1)  is charged in the alternative;
               (2)  occurred outside the period in which the offense
  under Subsection (a)(2) is alleged to have occurred; or
               (3)  is considered by the trier of fact to be a lesser
  included offense of the offense under Subsection (a)(2).
         (c-2)  A defendant may not be charged with more than one
  count alleging the commission of an offense under Subsection (a)(2)
  for which the state seeks to establish punishment under Subsection
  (b)(2) if all of the specific conduct that is alleged to have been
  engaged in involves a single victim.
         SECTION 2.  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 when 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 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.
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