HBA-AMW H.B. 553 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 553 By: Mowery Criminal Jurisprudence 7/19/2001 Enrolled BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE In 1995, a man and his wife joined a traveling carnival while an investigation in Texas was pending into allegations that the man had sexually abused his two daughters. As the carnival prepared to reenter the United States from Canada, a special agent of the United States Customs Service ran a routine check on the suspect and found a Texas arrest warrant for the suspect. When the suspect crossed the border into Montana, the agent detained the suspect and read him his Miranda rights. Three weeks later, the agent compiled a report in which he recorded his recollections of the suspect's statements. No other record of the suspect's statement exists. Prior to the 77th Legislature, state law provided that one of the requirements for admissibility of a statement of an accused made as a result of custodial interrogation (statement) was that the statement was electronically recorded. State law also required strict compliance with all requirements for the admissibility of a statement. Although the statement was admissible under Montana law and the Texas trial court ruled the statement admissible, the Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas ruled that the statement was inadmissable because it did not comply with Texas law and remanded the case. House Bill 553 provides that a statement is admissible in a criminal proceeding in Texas if the statement was obtained in another state and was obtained in compliance with the laws of that state or this state or the statement was obtained by a federal law enforcement officer in Texas or another state and was obtained in compliance with the laws of the United States. 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 553 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to provide that a written, oral, or sign language statement of an accused made as a result of a custodial interrogation is admissible against the accused in a criminal proceeding in Texas if the statement was obtained in another state and was obtained in compliance with the laws of that state or this state or the statement was obtained by a federal law enforcement officer in Texas or another state and was obtained in compliance with the laws of the United States. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.