HBA-EDN H.B. 1352 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 1352
By: Uher
Criminal Jurisprudence
4/6/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Under current law, a person who has been arrested for a felony or a
misdemeanor is entitled to an expunction of all records and files relating
to the arrest if an indictment has not been presented against the person,
the person has been released or the charge has been dismissed, or the
person has not been convicted of a felony in the five years preceding the
date of arrest.  Arrest records which are not expunged remain on a person's
permanent criminal record and may impede a person from obtaining desired
employment even though the offense was committed several years before.
House Bill 1352 authorizes a court to expunge all records and files
relating to an arrest for a Class B misdemeanor offense under certain
conditions.   

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. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 1352 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to authorize a
district court to expunge all records and files relating to the arrest of a
person for the commission of a Class B misdemeanor offense if the person: 

_committed the offense when the person was younger than 25 years of age;

_was placed on deferred adjudication community supervision for that offense;

_subsequently received a dismissal and discharge for that offense; and 

_has not been convicted of any offense.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act
takes effect September 1, 2001.