By: Murr, Lang (Senate Sponsor - Whitmire) H.B. No. 300
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 2, 2019;
May 3, 2019, read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal
Justice; May 15, 2019, reported favorably by the following vote:
Yeas 6, Nays 0; May 15, 2019, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to inquest summary reports and the preservation of
evidence collected in the course of an inquest.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Article 49.17, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
amended to read as follows:
Art. 49.17. EVIDENCE. A justice of the peace shall preserve
all tangible evidence that the justice accumulates in the course of
an inquest that tends to show the real cause of death or identify
the person who caused the death. The justice shall[:
[(1)] deposit the evidence with the appropriate law
enforcement agency to be stored in the agency's property room for
safekeeping[; or
[(2) deliver the evidence to the district clerk for
safekeeping subject to the order of the court].
SECTION 2. Article 49.15(d), Code of Criminal Procedure, is
repealed.
SECTION 3. The certified copy of an inquest summary report
received and maintained by a district court clerk under Article
49.15(d), Code of Criminal Procedure, as it existed immediately
before the effective date of this Act, may be destroyed by the clerk
in accordance with the district court's records retention schedule.
SECTION 4. As soon as practicable after the effective date
of this Act, each district clerk in possession of evidence
delivered to the clerk for safekeeping under Article 49.17, Code of
Criminal Procedure, as that article existed immediately before the
effective date of this Act, shall transfer the evidence to the
appropriate law enforcement agency for safekeeping as provided by
Article 49.17, Code of Criminal Procedure, as amended by this Act.
SECTION 5. 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, 2019.
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