81R10830 GCB-F
By: Farrar H.B. No. 3318
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to creating an offense for infanticide.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 19.01(b), Penal Code, is amended to read
as follows:
(b) Criminal homicide is murder, capital murder,
manslaughter, infanticide, or criminally negligent homicide.
SECTION 2. Chapter 19, Penal Code, is amended by adding
Section 19.08 to read as follows:
Sec. 19.08. INFANTICIDE. (a) A person commits an offense
if the person wilfully by an act or omission causes the death of a
child to whom the person gave birth within the 12-month period
preceding the child's death and if, at the time of the act or
omission, the person's judgment was impaired as a result of the
effects of giving birth or the effects of lactation following the
birth.
(b) An offense under this section is a state jail felony.
SECTION 3. 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
covered 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 was committed before that
date.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.