By: Huffman S.B. No. 1697
(In the Senate - Filed March 13, 2015; March 23, 2015, read
first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
April 27, 2015, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 7, Nays 0; April 27, 2015,
sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1697 By: Huffman
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the confidentiality of certain information regarding
procedures and substances used in the execution of a convict.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter C, Chapter 552, Government Code, is
amended by adding Section 552.1081 to read as follows:
Sec. 552.1081. EXCEPTION: CONFIDENTIALITY OF CERTAIN
INFORMATION REGARDING EXECUTION OF CONVICT. Information is
excepted from the requirements of Section 552.021 if it contains
identifying information under Article 43.14, Code of Criminal
Procedure, including that of:
(1) any person who participates in an execution
procedure, including a person who uses, supplies, or administers a
substance during the execution; and
(2) any person or entity that manufactures,
transports, tests, procures, compounds, prescribes, dispenses, or
provides a substance or supplies used in an execution.
SECTION 2. Article 43.14, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
amended to read as follows:
Art. 43.14. EXECUTION OF CONVICT: CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
[CONVICT]. (a) Whenever the sentence of death is pronounced
against a convict, the sentence shall be executed at any time after
the hour of 6 p.m. on the day set for the execution, by intravenous
injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity
sufficient to cause death and until such convict is dead, such
execution procedure to be determined and supervised by the director
of the correctional institutions division of the Texas Department
of Criminal Justice.
(b) The name, address, and other identifying information of
the following is confidential and excepted from disclosure under
Section 552.021, Government Code:
(1) any person who participates in an execution
procedure described by Subsection (a), including a person who uses,
supplies, or administers a substance during the execution; and
(2) any person or entity that manufactures,
transports, tests, procures, compounds, prescribes, dispenses, or
provides a substance or supplies used in an execution.
SECTION 3. The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
a request for information that is received by a governmental body or
an officer for public information on or after the effective date of
this Act. A request for information that was received before the
effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on the
date the request was received, and the former law is continued in
effect for that purpose.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2015.
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