By: Hinojosa S.B. No. 1071
(Thompson of Harris)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to requiring notice of the scheduling of an execution date
and the issuance of a warrant of execution.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Article 43.141, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
amended by adding Subsection (b-1) to read as follows:
(b-1) A convicting court may not set an execution date
unless:
(1) the attorney representing the state files a
written motion to set an execution date; and
(2) not later than the 10th day before the date on
which the court enters an order setting the execution date, a copy
of the motion is served on:
(A) the attorney who represented the condemned
person in the most recently concluded stage of a state or federal
postconviction proceeding; and
(B) the office of capital writs established under
Subchapter B, Chapter 78, Government Code.
SECTION 2. Article 43.15, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
amended to read as follows:
Art. 43.15. WARRANT OF EXECUTION. (a) Whenever any person
is sentenced to death, the clerk of the court in which the sentence
is pronounced[,] shall, not later than the 10th day [within ten
days] after the court enters its order setting the date for
execution, issue a warrant under the seal of the court for the
execution of the sentence of death, which shall recite the fact of
conviction, setting forth specifically the offense, the judgment of
the court, and the time fixed for the [his] execution, and which
shall be directed to the director of the correctional institutions
division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice [Director of
the Department of Corrections] at Huntsville, Texas, commanding the
director [him] to proceed, at the time and place named in the order
of execution, to carry the same into execution, as provided in [the
preceding] Article 43.14, and shall deliver such warrant to the
sheriff of the county in which such judgment of conviction was had,
to be [by him] delivered by the sheriff to the director [said
Director of the Department of Corrections], together with the
condemned person if the person [he] has not previously been so
delivered.
(b) At the time the warrant is issued under Subsection (a),
the clerk of the court shall send a copy of the warrant to:
(1) the attorney who represented the condemned person
in the most recently concluded stage of a state or federal
postconviction proceeding;
(2) the attorney representing the state; and
(3) the office of capital writs established under
Subchapter B, Chapter 78, Government Code.
SECTION 3. (a) Article 43.141, Code of Criminal Procedure,
as amended by this Act, applies only to an order entered on or after
the effective date of this Act. An order entered before the
effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the
date the order was entered, and the former law is continued in
effect for that purpose.
(b) Article 43.15, Code of Criminal Procedure, as amended by
this Act, applies only to a warrant issued on or after the effective
date of this Act. A warrant issued before the effective date of
this Act is governed by the law in effect on the date the warrant was
issued, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.