By: Whitmire	S.B. No. 623
	(In the Senate - Filed February 11, 2011; February 17, 2011,
	read first time and referred to Committee on Criminal Justice;
	March 21, 2011, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
	Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; March 21, 2011,
	sent to printer.)
	COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 623	By:  Whitmire

	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
	AN ACT
	relating to the disqualification of a district or county attorney
	who is the subject of a criminal investigation.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
	SECTION 1.  Article 2.08, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
	amended to read as follows:
	Art. 2.08.  DISQUALIFIED.  (a)  District and county
	attorneys shall not be of counsel adversely to the State in any
	case, in any court, nor shall they, after they cease to be such
	officers, be of counsel adversely to the State in any case in which
	they have been of counsel for the State.
	(b)  A judge of a court in which a district or county attorney
	represents the State shall declare the district or county attorney
	disqualified for purposes of Article 2.07 on a showing that the
	attorney is the subject of a criminal investigation based on
	credible evidence of criminal misconduct for an offense that is
	within the attorney's authority to prosecute. A disqualification
	under this subsection applies only to the attorney's access to the
	criminal investigation pending against the attorney and to any
	prosecution of a criminal charge resulting from that investigation.
	SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
	to the prosecution of an offense committed on or after the effective
	date of this Act. The prosecution of an offense committed before
	the effective date of this Act is governed by the law in effect on
	the date the offense was committed, and the former law is continued
	in effect for that purpose. For purposes of this section, an
	offense was committed before the effective date of this Act if any
	element of the offense occurred before that date.
	SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.
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