H.B. No. 1427
AN ACT
relating to the prosecution of the offense of harassment.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 42.07(a), Penal Code, is amended to read
as follows:
(a) A person commits an offense if, with intent to harass,
annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or embarrass another, the person:
(1) initiates communication and in the course of the
communication makes a comment, request, suggestion, or proposal
that is obscene;
(2) threatens, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm
the person receiving the threat, to inflict bodily injury on the
person or to commit a felony against the person, a member of the
person's family or household, or the person's property;
(3) conveys, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm
the person receiving the report, a false report, which is known by
the conveyor to be false, that another person has suffered death or
serious bodily injury;
(4) causes the telephone of another to ring repeatedly
or makes repeated telephone communications anonymously or in a
manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment,
embarrass, or offend another;
(5) makes a telephone call and intentionally fails to
hang up or disengage the connection;
(6) knowingly permits a telephone under the person's
control to be used by another to commit an offense under this
section;
(7) sends repeated electronic communications in a
manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment,
embarrass, or offend another; [or]
(8) publishes on an Internet website, including a
social media platform, repeated electronic communications in a
manner reasonably likely to cause emotional distress, abuse, or
torment to another person, unless the communications are made in
connection with a matter of public concern; or
(9) makes obscene, intimidating, or threatening
telephone calls or other electronic communications from a temporary
or disposable telephone number provided by an Internet application
or other technological means.
SECTION 2. 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 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1427 was passed by the House on May 2,
2023, by the following vote: Yeas 139, Nays 5, 3 present, not
voting.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 1427 was passed by the Senate on May
18, 2023, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: _____________________
Date
_____________________
Governor