85S10924 KJE-F
By: Turner H.B. No. 265
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the prosecution of the offenses of sexual assault and
aggravated sexual assault.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 22.011(b), Penal Code, as effective
September 1, 2017, is amended to read as follows:
(b) A sexual assault under Subsection (a)(1) is without the
consent of the other person if:
(1) the actor compels the other person to submit or
participate by the use of physical force, violence, or coercion;
(2) the actor compels the other person to submit or
participate by threatening to use force or violence against the
other person or to cause harm to the other person, and the other
person believes that the actor has the present ability to execute
the threat;
(3) the other person has not consented and the actor
knows the other person is:
(A) unconscious;
(B) [or] physically unable to resist;
(C) incapable of appraising the nature of the
act; or
(D) unaware that the sexual assault is occurring;
(4) the actor knows that as a result of mental disease
or defect the other person is at the time of the sexual assault
incapable either of appraising the nature of the act or of resisting
it;
(5) [the other person has not consented and the actor
knows the other person is unaware that the sexual assault is
occurring;
[(6) the actor has intentionally impaired the other
person's power to appraise or control the other person's conduct by
administering any substance without the other person's knowledge;
[(7)] the actor compels the other person to submit or
participate by threatening to use force or violence against any
person, and the other person believes that the actor has the ability
to execute the threat;
(6) [(8)] the actor is a public servant who coerces
the other person to submit or participate;
(7) [(9)] the actor is a mental health services
provider or a health care services provider who causes the other
person, who is a patient or former patient of the actor, to submit
or participate by exploiting the other person's emotional
dependency on the actor;
(8) [(10)] the actor is a clergyman who causes the
other person to submit or participate by exploiting the other
person's emotional dependency on the clergyman in the clergyman's
professional character as spiritual adviser; [or]
(9) [(11)] the actor is an employee of a facility
where the other person is a resident, unless the employee and
resident are formally or informally married to each other under
Chapter 2, Family Code; or
(10) the actor knows that the other person has
withdrawn consent to the act and the actor persists in the act after
consent is withdrawn.
SECTION 2. Section 22.011(c), Penal Code, is amended by
adding Subdivision (6) to read as follows:
(6) Notwithstanding Section 1.07, "consent" means
express consent demonstrated through words or actions indicating an
active and voluntary agreement to participate in an act.
SECTION 3. Section 22.011, Penal Code, is amended by adding
Subsection (e-1) to read as follows:
(e-1) It is not a defense to prosecution under this section
that the actor mistakenly believed that the other person consented
to the conduct if a reasonable person should have known or
understood that the other person did not consent to the conduct.
SECTION 4. Section 22.021(b), Penal Code, is amended by
adding Subdivision (4) to read as follows:
(4) Notwithstanding Section 1.07, "consent" has the
meaning assigned by Section 22.011.
SECTION 5. Section 22.021, Penal Code, is amended by adding
Subsection (d-1) to read as follows:
(d-1) It is not a defense to prosecution under this section
that the actor mistakenly believed that the other person consented
to the conduct if a reasonable person should have known or
understood that the other person did not consent to the conduct.
SECTION 6. 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
governed by the law in effect on the date 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 occurred
before that date.
SECTION 7. This Act takes effect December 1, 2017.