HBA-KMH H.B. 3070 76(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3070
By: Hinojosa
Criminal Jurisprudence
4/19/1999
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

The Court of Criminal Appeals recently adopted a rules of appellate
procedure prohibiting jury misconduct and defining what evidence can be
adduced from a juror in such an instance.  Last March the Court of Criminal
Appeals, in adopting another new rule of evidence, eliminated the ability
to introduce evidence of juror misconduct in criminal cases.  The
elimination of the rule allowing evidence of juror misconduct makes it
irrelevant if a juror decides a person's guilt on an improper basis.  The
only exceptions to this new rule is cases where a juror is incompetent or
there was an outside influence on the deliberation. 

H.B. 3070 prohibits a juror from testifying before the jury for which the
juror was impaneled and entitles the opposing party to object to the
testimony.  Furthermore, this bill prohibits a juror from testifying about
aspects of jury deliberation except as to matters relevant to the validity
of the verdict or indictment on inquiry. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Chapter 36, Code of Criminal Procedure, by adding
Article 36.34, as follows: 

Art.  36.34.  JUROR NOT ALLOWED TO TESTIFY.  Prohibits a juror in the trial
of a case from testifying before the jury on which the juror sits as a
member.  Entitles an opposing party to object to the testimony outside the
presence of the jury if a juror is called to testify in violation this
article. 

SECTION 2.  Amends Chapter 40, Code of Criminal Procedure, by adding
Article 40.002, as follows: 

Art.  40.002.  Prohibits a juror from testifying as to any matter or
statement occurring during jury deliberations,  the mental processes used
by the juror in deliberating the verdict or the effect of any event or
thing on the mind of the juror or another juror that influenced the juror
or other juror  in deliberating the verdict.  Prohibits the admission of an
affidavit or evidence of a statement by a juror concerning a matter about
which the juror is prohibited from testifying under this article.
Authorizes a juror to testify as to any matter relevant to the validity of
the verdict or indictment on inquiry into the validity of a verdict or
indictment. 

SECTION 3. Emergency clause.
  Effective date: upon passage.