By: Burton, Huffines, Miles S.B. No. 325
(In the Senate - Filed December 14, 2016; January 30, 2017,
read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
March 20, 2017, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 9, Nays 0; March 20, 2017,
sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 325 By: Perry
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the procedure for expunction of arrest records and
files for certain persons who are tried for an offense and
subsequently acquitted.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 1, Article 55.02, Code of Criminal
Procedure, is amended to read as follows:
Sec. 1. At the request of the acquitted person [defendant]
and after notice to the state, or at the request of the attorney for
the state, the trial court presiding over the case in which the
person [defendant] was acquitted, if the trial court is a district
court, or a district court in the county in which the trial court is
located shall enter an order of expunction for a person entitled to
expunction under Article 55.01(a)(1)(A) not later than the 30th day
after the date of the acquittal. On [Upon] acquittal, the trial
court shall advise the acquitted person [defendant] of the right to
expunction. The party requesting the order of expunction
[defendant] shall provide to the district court all of the
information required in a petition for expunction under Section
2(b). The attorney for the acquitted person [defendant] in the case
in which the person [defendant] was acquitted, if the person
[defendant] was represented by counsel, or the attorney for the
state, if the person [defendant] was not represented by counsel or
if the attorney for the state requested the order of expunction,
shall prepare the order for the court's signature.
SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to the expunction of arrest records and files related to a criminal
offense for which the trial of the offense begins on or after the
effective date of this Act. The expunction of arrest records and
files related to a criminal offense for which the trial of the
offense begins before the effective date of this Act is governed by
the law in effect on the date the trial begins, and the former law is
continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.
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