By: Parker S.B. No. 957
(In the Senate - Filed January 28, 2025; February 13, 2025,
read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
March 19, 2025, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 7,
Nays 0; March 19, 2025, sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the creation of the criminal offense of continuous
aggravated promotion of prostitution.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Subchapter A, Chapter 43, Penal Code, is amended
by adding Section 43.042 to read as follows:
Sec. 43.042. CONTINUOUS AGGRAVATED PROMOTION OF
PROSTITUTION. (a) A person commits an offense if, during a period
that is 30 or more days in duration, the person engages two or more
times in conduct that constitutes an offense under Section 43.04.
(b) If a jury is the trier of fact, members of the jury are
not required to agree unanimously on which specific conduct engaged
in by the defendant constituted an offense under Section 43.04 or on
which exact date the defendant engaged in that conduct. The jury
must agree unanimously that the defendant, during a period that is
30 or more days in duration, engaged two or more times in conduct
that constituted an offense under Section 43.04.
(c) If the victim of an offense under Subsection (a) is the
same victim as a victim of an offense under Section 43.04, a
defendant may not be convicted of the offense under Section 43.04 in
the same criminal action as the offense under Subsection (a),
unless the offense under Section 43.04:
(1) is charged in the alternative;
(2) occurred outside the period in which the offense
alleged under Subsection (a) was committed; or
(3) is considered by the trier of fact to be a lesser
included offense of the offense alleged under Subsection (a).
(d) A defendant may not be charged with more than one count
under Subsection (a) if all of the conduct that constitutes an
offense under Section 43.04 is alleged to have been committed
against the same victim.
(e) An offense under this section is a felony of the first
degree, punishable by imprisonment in the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice for life or for any term of not more than 99 years
or less than 25 years.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.
* * * * *