S.B. No. 1259
 
 
 
 
AN ACT
  relating to the prosecution of the offense of sexual assault.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Article 12.01, Code of Criminal Procedure, is
  amended to read as follows:
         Art. 12.01.  FELONIES.  Except as provided in Article 12.03,
  felony indictments may be presented within these limits, and not
  afterward:
               (1)  no limitation:
                     (A)  murder and manslaughter;
                     (B)  sexual assault under Section 22.011(a)(2),
  Penal Code, or aggravated sexual assault under Section
  22.021(a)(1)(B), Penal Code;
                     (C)  sexual assault, if:
                           (i)  during the investigation of the offense
  biological matter is collected and subjected to forensic DNA
  testing and the testing results show that the matter does not match
  the victim or any other person whose identity is readily
  ascertained; or
                           (ii)  probable cause exists to believe that
  the defendant has committed the same or a similar sexual offense
  against five or more victims;
                     (D)  continuous sexual abuse of young child or
  children under Section 21.02, Penal Code;
                     (E)  indecency with a child under Section 21.11,
  Penal Code;
                     (F)  an offense involving leaving the scene of an
  accident under Section 550.021, Transportation Code, if the
  accident resulted in the death of a person;
                     (G)  trafficking of persons under Section
  20A.02(a)(7) or (8), Penal Code;
                     (H)  continuous trafficking of persons under
  Section 20A.03, Penal Code; or
                     (I)  compelling prostitution under Section
  43.05(a)(2), Penal Code;
               (2)  ten years from the date of the commission of the
  offense:
                     (A)  theft of any estate, real, personal or mixed,
  by an executor, administrator, guardian or trustee, with intent to
  defraud any creditor, heir, legatee, ward, distributee,
  beneficiary or settlor of a trust interested in such estate;
                     (B)  theft by a public servant of government
  property over which he exercises control in his official capacity;
                     (C)  forgery or the uttering, using or passing of
  forged instruments;
                     (D)  injury to an elderly or disabled individual
  punishable as a felony of the first degree under Section 22.04,
  Penal Code;
                     (E)  sexual assault, except as provided by
  Subdivision (1) or (7);
                     (F)  arson;
                     (G)  trafficking of persons under Section
  20A.02(a)(1), (2), (3), or (4), Penal Code; or
                     (H)  compelling prostitution under Section
  43.05(a)(1), Penal Code;
               (3)  seven years from the date of the commission of the
  offense:
                     (A)  misapplication of fiduciary property or
  property of a financial institution;
                     (B)  securing execution of document by deception;
                     (C)  a felony violation under Chapter 162, Tax
  Code;
                     (D)  false statement to obtain property or credit
  under Section 32.32, Penal Code;
                     (E)  money laundering;
                     (F)  credit card or debit card abuse under Section
  32.31, Penal Code;
                     (G)  fraudulent use or possession of identifying
  information under Section 32.51, Penal Code;
                     (H)  exploitation of a child, elderly individual,
  or disabled individual under Section 32.53, Penal Code;
                     (I)  Medicaid fraud under Section 35A.02, Penal
  Code; or
                     (J)  bigamy under Section 25.01, Penal Code,
  except as provided by Subdivision (6);
               (4)  five years from the date of the commission of the
  offense:
                     (A)  theft or robbery;
                     (B)  except as provided by Subdivision (5),
  kidnapping or burglary;
                     (C)  injury to an elderly or disabled individual
  that is not punishable as a felony of the first degree under Section
  22.04, Penal Code;
                     (D)  abandoning or endangering a child; or
                     (E)  insurance fraud;
               (5)  if the investigation of the offense shows that the
  victim is younger than 17 years of age at the time the offense is
  committed, 20 years from the 18th birthday of the victim of one of
  the following offenses:
                     (A)  sexual performance by a child under Section
  43.25, Penal Code;
                     (B)  aggravated kidnapping under Section
  20.04(a)(4), Penal Code, if the defendant committed the offense
  with the intent to violate or abuse the victim sexually; or
                     (C)  burglary under Section 30.02, Penal Code, if
  the offense is punishable under Subsection (d) of that section and
  the defendant committed the offense with the intent to commit an
  offense described by Subdivision (1)(B) or (D) of this article or
  Paragraph (B) of this subdivision;
               (6)  ten years from the 18th birthday of the victim of
  the offense:
                     (A)  trafficking of persons under Section
  20A.02(a)(5) or (6), Penal Code;
                     (B)  injury to a child under Section 22.04, Penal
  Code; or
                     (C)  bigamy under Section 25.01, Penal Code, if
  the investigation of the offense shows that the person, other than
  the legal spouse of the defendant, whom the defendant marries or
  purports to marry or with whom the defendant lives under the
  appearance of being married is younger than 18 years of age at the
  time the offense is committed; [or]
               (7)  two years from the date the offense was
  discovered:  sexual assault punishable as a state jail felony under
  Section 22.011(f)(2), Penal Code; or
               (8)  three years from the date of the commission of the
  offense:  all other felonies.
         SECTION 2.  Sections 22.011(b) and (f), Penal Code, are
  amended to read as follows:
         (b)  A sexual assault under Subsection (a)(1) is without the
  consent of the other person if:
               (1)  the actor compels the other person to submit or
  participate by the use of physical force, violence, or coercion;
               (2)  the actor compels the other person to submit or
  participate by threatening to use force or violence against the
  other person or to cause harm to the other person, and the other
  person believes that the actor has the present ability to execute
  the threat;
               (3)  the other person has not consented and the actor
  knows the other person is unconscious or physically unable to
  resist;
               (4)  the actor knows that as a result of mental disease
  or defect the other person is at the time of the sexual assault
  incapable either of appraising the nature of the act or of resisting
  it;
               (5)  the other person has not consented and the actor
  knows the other person is unaware that the sexual assault is
  occurring;
               (6)  the actor has intentionally impaired the other
  person's power to appraise or control the other person's conduct by
  administering any substance without the other person's knowledge;
               (7)  the actor compels the other person to submit or
  participate by threatening to use force or violence against any
  person, and the other person believes that the actor has the ability
  to execute the threat;
               (8)  the actor is a public servant who coerces the other
  person to submit or participate;
               (9)  the actor is a mental health services provider or a
  health care services provider who causes the other person, who is a
  patient or former patient of the actor, to submit or participate by
  exploiting the other person's emotional dependency on the actor;
               (10)  the actor is a clergyman who causes the other
  person to submit or participate by exploiting the other person's
  emotional dependency on the clergyman in the clergyman's
  professional character as spiritual adviser; [or]
               (11)  the actor is an employee of a facility where the
  other person is a resident, unless the employee and resident are
  formally or informally married to each other under Chapter 2,
  Family Code; or
               (12)  the actor is a health care services provider who,
  in the course of performing an assisted reproduction procedure on
  the other person, uses human reproductive material from a donor
  knowing that the other person has not expressly consented to the use
  of material from that donor.
         (f)  An offense under this section is a felony of the second
  degree, except that an offense under this section is:
               (1)  a felony of the first degree if the victim was a
  person whom the actor was prohibited from marrying or purporting to
  marry or with whom the actor was prohibited from living under the
  appearance of being married under Section 25.01; or
               (2)  a state jail felony if the offense is committed
  under Subsection (a)(1) and the actor has not received express
  consent as described by Subsection (b)(12).
         SECTION 3.  Section 22.011(c), Penal Code, is amended by
  adding Subdivisions (6) and (7) to read as follows:
               (6)  "Assisted reproduction" and "donor" have the
  meanings assigned by Section 160.102, Family Code.
               (7)  "Human reproductive material" means:
                     (A)  a human spermatozoon or ovum; or
                     (B)  a human organism at any stage of development
  from fertilized ovum to embryo.
         SECTION 4.  The changes in law made by this Act apply only to
  an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act. An
  offense committed before the effective date of this Act is governed
  by the law in effect when 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 5.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2019.
 
 
 
 
 
  ______________________________ ______________________________
     President of the Senate Speaker of the House     
 
         I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1259 passed the Senate on
  April 11, 2019, by the following vote:  Yeas 31, Nays 0.
 
 
  ______________________________
  Secretary of the Senate    
 
         I hereby certify that S.B. No. 1259 passed the House on
  May 17, 2019, by the following vote:  Yeas 139, Nays 0, two
  present not voting.
 
 
  ______________________________
  Chief Clerk of the House   
 
 
 
  Approved:
 
  ______________________________ 
              Date
 
 
  ______________________________ 
            Governor