HBA-KDB H.B. 624 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 624 By: Carter Criminal Jurisprudence 3/25/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current law, a person arrested in a county other than the one in which the person committed an offense is required to be taken before a magistrate of the county in which the offense occurred. There is concern that this may be inconvenient to and costly for an arrested person, because of the time required to transport a person from the arresting county to the county in which the offense occurred and because transportation costs from one county to another may exceed the fines collected for the offense. House Bill 624 authorizes a person arrested for an out-of-county offense punishable by fine only to enter a written plea of guilty or nolo contendere. 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 624 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to authorize a defendant who is taken before a magistrate for an out-of-county offense to waive trial by jury and enter a written plea of guilty or nolo contendere. H.B. 624 requires a magistrate to accept from a person arrested under a warrant issued in another county for an offense punishable by fine only, a written plea of guilty or nolo contendere, set a fine, determine costs, accept payment of the fine and costs, give credit for time served, determine indigency, or, on satisfaction of the judgment, discharge the defendant, as the case may indicate. The bill requires that the magistrate, before the 11th business day after the date a magistrate accepts a written plea of guilty or nolo contendere in a case in which a person is arrested in a county other than the one where the warrant is issued, transmit the written plea, any orders entered in the case, and any fine or costs collected in the case to the court having jurisdiction of the offense. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.