By: West S.B. No. 252
(In the Senate - Filed January 25, 2013; January 29, 2013,
read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
March 13, 2013, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 6,
Nays 0; March 13, 2013, sent to printer.)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to certain procedures regarding an application for a writ
of habeas corpus filed in a noncapital felony case.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subsection (d), Section 3, Article 11.07, Code
of Criminal Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
(d) If the convicting court decides that there are
controverted, previously unresolved facts which are material to the
legality of the applicant's confinement, it shall enter an order
within 20 days of the expiration of the time allowed for the state
to reply, designating the issues of fact to be resolved. To resolve
those issues the court may order affidavits, depositions,
interrogatories, additional forensic testing, and hearings, as
well as using personal recollection. The state shall pay the cost
of additional forensic testing ordered under this subsection,
except that the applicant shall pay the cost of the testing if the
applicant retains counsel for purposes of filing an application
under this article. The convicting court may appoint an attorney or
a magistrate to hold a hearing and make findings of fact. An
attorney so appointed shall be compensated as provided in Article
26.05 of this code. It shall be the duty of the reporter who is
designated to transcribe a hearing held pursuant to this article to
prepare a transcript within 15 days of its conclusion. On
completion of the transcript, the reporter shall immediately
transmit the transcript to the clerk of the convicting court. After
the convicting court makes findings of fact or approves the
findings of the person designated to make them, the clerk of the
convicting court shall immediately transmit to the Court of
Criminal Appeals, under one cover, the application, any answers
filed, any motions filed, transcripts of all depositions and
hearings, any affidavits, and any other matters such as official
records used by the court in resolving issues of fact.
SECTION 2. Subsection (d), Section 3, Article 11.07, Code
of Criminal Procedure, as amended by this Act, applies only to an
application for a writ of habeas corpus filed on or after the
effective date of this Act. An application filed before the
effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the
application was filed, and the former law is continued in effect for
that purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.
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