Bill Text: TX HB3025 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Enrolled

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Bill Title: Relating to the prosecution of the criminal offenses of aggravated kidnapping, kidnapping, and interference with child custody.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Republican 4-1)

Status: (Passed) 2023-06-10 - Effective on 9/1/23 [HB3025 Detail]

Download: Texas-2023-HB3025-Enrolled.html

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H.B. No. 3025

AN ACT
relating to the prosecution of the criminal offenses of aggravated
kidnapping, kidnapping, and interference with child custody.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as Bianca's Law.
SECTION 2. Article 12.01, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
amended to read as follows:
Art. 12.01. FELONIES. Except as provided in Article 12.03,
felony indictments may be presented within these limits, and not
afterward:
(1) no limitation:
(A) murder and manslaughter;
(B) sexual assault under Section 22.011(a)(2),
Penal Code, or aggravated sexual assault under Section
22.021(a)(1)(B), Penal Code;
(C) sexual assault, if:
(i) during the investigation of the offense
biological matter is collected and the matter:
(a) has not yet been subjected to
forensic DNA testing; or
(b) has been subjected to forensic DNA
testing and the testing results show that the matter does not match
the victim or any other person whose identity is readily
ascertained; or
(ii) probable cause exists to believe that
the defendant has committed the same or a similar sex offense
against five or more victims;
(D) continuous sexual abuse of young child or
disabled individual under Section 21.02, Penal Code;
(E) indecency with a child under Section 21.11,
Penal Code;
(F) an offense involving leaving the scene of an
accident under Section 550.021, Transportation Code, if the
accident resulted in the death of a person;
(G) trafficking of persons under Section
20A.02(a)(7) or (8), Penal Code;
(H) continuous trafficking of persons under
Section 20A.03, Penal Code; [or]
(I) compelling prostitution under Section
43.05(a)(2), Penal Code; or
(J) interference with child custody under
Section 25.03(a)(3), Penal Code;
(2) ten years from the date of the commission of the
offense:
(A) theft of any estate, real, personal or mixed,
by an executor, administrator, guardian or trustee, with intent to
defraud any creditor, heir, legatee, ward, distributee,
beneficiary or settlor of a trust interested in such estate;
(B) theft by a public servant of government
property over which the public servant exercises control in the
public servant's official capacity;
(C) forgery or the uttering, using, or passing of
forged instruments;
(D) injury to an elderly or disabled individual
punishable as a felony of the first degree under Section 22.04,
Penal Code;
(E) sexual assault, except as provided by
Subdivision (1) or (7);
(F) arson;
(G) trafficking of persons under Section
20A.02(a)(1), (2), (3), or (4), Penal Code; or
(H) compelling prostitution under Section
43.05(a)(1), Penal Code;
(3) seven years from the date of the commission of the
offense:
(A) misapplication of fiduciary property or
property of a financial institution;
(B) fraudulent securing of document execution;
(C) a felony violation under Chapter 162, Tax
Code;
(D) false statement to obtain property or credit
under Section 32.32, Penal Code;
(E) money laundering;
(F) credit card or debit card abuse under Section
32.31, Penal Code;
(G) fraudulent use or possession of identifying
information under Section 32.51, Penal Code;
(H) exploitation of a child, elderly individual,
or disabled individual under Section 32.53, Penal Code;
(I) health care fraud under Section 35A.02, Penal
Code; or
(J) bigamy under Section 25.01, Penal Code,
except as provided by Subdivision (6);
(4) five years from the date of the commission of the
offense:
(A) theft or robbery;
(B) except as provided by Subdivision (5),
kidnapping or burglary;
(C) injury to an elderly or disabled individual
that is not punishable as a felony of the first degree under Section
22.04, Penal Code;
(D) abandoning or endangering a child; or
(E) insurance fraud;
(5) if the investigation of the offense shows that the
victim is younger than 17 years of age at the time the offense is
committed, 20 years from the 18th birthday of the victim of one of
the following offenses:
(A) sexual performance by a child under Section
43.25, Penal Code;
(B) kidnapping under Section 20.03, Penal Code,
or aggravated kidnapping under Section 20.04 [20.04(a)(4)], Penal
Code[, if the defendant committed the offense with the intent to
violate or abuse the victim sexually]; or
(C) burglary under Section 30.02, Penal Code, if
the offense is punishable under Subsection (d) of that section and
the defendant committed the offense with the intent to commit an
offense described by Subdivision (1)(B) or (D) of this article or
Paragraph (B) of this subdivision;
(6) ten years from the 18th birthday of the victim of
the offense:
(A) trafficking of persons under Section
20A.02(a)(5) or (6), Penal Code;
(B) injury to a child under Section 22.04, Penal
Code; or
(C) bigamy under Section 25.01, Penal Code, if
the investigation of the offense shows that the person, other than
the legal spouse of the defendant, whom the defendant marries or
purports to marry or with whom the defendant lives under the
appearance of being married is younger than 18 years of age at the
time the offense is committed;
(7) two years from the date the offense was
discovered: sexual assault punishable as a state jail felony under
Section 22.011(f)(2), Penal Code; or
(8) three years from the date of the commission of the
offense: all other felonies.
SECTION 3. Section 25.03, Penal Code, is amended by adding
Subsection (e) to read as follows:
(e) If conduct that constitutes an offense under Subsection
(a)(3) also constitutes an offense under Section 20.03, the actor
may be prosecuted only under Section 20.03.
SECTION 4. Article 12.01, Code of Criminal Procedure, as
amended by this Act, does not apply to the prosecution of an offense
if that prosecution becomes barred by limitation before the
effective date of this Act. The prosecution of the offense remains
barred as if this Act had not taken effect.
SECTION 5. Section 25.03(e), Penal Code, as added 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 6. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 3025 was passed by the House on May 3,
2023, by the following vote: Yeas 145, Nays 1, 2 present, not
voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 3025 was passed by the Senate on May
18, 2023, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: _____________________
Date
_____________________
Governor