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CIVIL & CRIMINAL JURISPRUDENCE

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  • House Bill 1024 (Shaheen | SP: Hagenbuch) requires law enforcement to execute warrants for the return of super intensive supervision program (SISP) parolees as soon as practicable following a violation of a condition of release related to electronic monitoring. SISP parolees are individuals who have committed certain violent offenses, such as sexual assault, aggravated robbery, and kidnapping, and are placed in the highest tier of parole supervision following their release from prison.

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  • House Bill 1422 (Hull | SP: Huffman) supports survivors of sexual assault by enhancing rights related to DNA collection and strengthening the prosecution of serious sexual offenders. The bill creates a first-degree felony offense for continuous sexual abuse of an adult, establishes a 25-year minimum sentence for aggravated sexual assault that involves a child under the age of 10 or actual, attempted, or threatened bodily injury or kidnapping, and provides judges the discretion to “stack” sentences for sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault charges.

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  • Senate Bill 441 (Hinojosa, Juan "Chuy" | SP: Lalani) protects citizens’ rights to privacy by providing civil remedies against individuals, websites, applications, and payment processors involved in producing, disclosing, or promoting artificial intelligence (AI) that is used to create nonconsensual intimate visual materials, often called "deepfakes.” However, SB 441 provides websites and platforms the opportunity to first remove prohibited content after receiving a request from the victim.

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  • House Bill 1465 (Hickland, et al. | SP: King) enhances protection of an individual’s expectation of privacy by making the state jail felony offense of invasive visual recording a reportable sex offender registration offense. The bill also broadens the locations at which certain conduct constituting this offense to include any place in which a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy.

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  • House Bill 2017 (Gerdes, et al. | SP: Hagenbuch) changes the current penalty for intoxication manslaughter from a second-degree felony that carries a possible sentence of two to 20 years by establishing a 10-year minimum sentence for persons who have previously been convicted of an offense relating to the operating a vehicle while intoxicated. An inmate is eligible for parole only after serving the minimum 10-year sentence, without consideration for good conduct, and if the inmate is otherwise eligible for release. 

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  • House Bill 2073 (Hull | SP: Huffman) increases the penalties in cases involving the violation of a protective order or bond conditions in offenses of family violence, child abuse or neglect, sexual assault or abuse, indecent assault, stalking, or trafficking. The bill provides that if an offender possesses a deadly weapon during the protective order or bond condition violation, the offense is elevated from a Class A misdemeanor to a state jail felony. Additionally, the bill increases the penalty  to a second-degree felony if it is shown that the defendant previously engaged in such conduct.

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  • Senate Bill 16 (89(2), West, et al. | SP: Dyson, et al.) addresses deed fraud and title theft by creating new criminal offenses for real property theft and real property fraud and requiring individuals filing property conveyance documents with a county clerk to present photo identification.

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  • House Bill 2217 (Wharton, et al. | SP: Hagenbuch) requires the criminal justice division of the office of the governor to establish a grant program for the purpose of providing financial assistance to law enforcement agencies to equip the motor vehicles used in an official capacity by peace officers with bullet-resistant windshields, side windows, rear windows, and door panels. Grant recipients must provide to the criminal justice division proof of the purchase and installation of these materials.

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  • Senate Bill 2570 (Flores | SP: Guillen) provides peace officers and correctional facility guards with a defense to prosecution for the reasonable use of a “less-lethal force weapon,” such as a stun gun, in defense of themselves or others.

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  • House Bill 2306 (Villalobos, et al. | SP: Parker) enhances protections for society’s most vulnerable populations by toughening parole guidelines to explicitly remove persons convicted of human trafficking of a child or disabled individual from being eligible for release on parole. Current statutes do not contain this restriction. 

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  • House Bill 5509 (Bumgarner, et al. | SP: Paxton) allows municipalities to suspend or revoke the certificate of occupancy for a hotel that is under investigation or that the municipality has reasonable cause to believe is involved in human trafficking.

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  • Senate Bill 11 (89(2), Parker, et al. | SP: Cook) establishes an affirmative defense to prosecution for criminal offenses if the court finds that the defendant committed his or her conduct due to a direct result of force, fraud, or coercion as a victim of human trafficking.

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  • Senate Bill 745 (Kolkhorst | SP: Gerdes) creates a new first-degree felony offense for intoxication manslaughter for defendants who cause the death of more than one individual.

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