Texas Responds: The Texas War Relief Package Page: 36
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Emergency Management 13 LEGISLATION REQUIRED
RECOMMENDATION
Texas should create new criminal offenses for terrorism, enhance penalties for
terrorist acts and amend state law to allow the death penalty for criminals con-
victed of acts of terrorism.
COMMENTS:
" There is no crime of terrorism, as such, in the Texas Penal Code. The Penal Code
does define the crime of "terroristic threat". However, this definition fails to capture
the scale of terrorism as seen in the events of September 11.
" The penalties for terroristic threats in Texas are relatively minor; they constitute
misdemeanors unless the threat is made to cause impairment or interruption of pub-
lic communications, public transportation, public water, gas or power supply or
other public service, in which case it is a felony.
- Should events similar to those that occurred in New York on September 11 occur in
Texas, the state needs to have appropriate penalties available. The Texas Penal Code
would have to be amended to adequately address the definition of terrorism and its
related penalties.
" The Penal Code's list of aggravated circumstances does not include terrorism.
However, many successfully executed acts of terror could result in the death of
more than one person during the "same criminal transaction," as specified by the
Texas capital murder statute. This provision would still leave some murders com-
mitted as part of a scheme of terrorism outside the capital murder statute. The only
way to ensure that acts of terrorism resulting in death are included in the statute is
to include terrorism specifically.
LEGISLATION REQUIRED
The Texas Penal Code should be revised to define terrorism and what constitutes
"accomplice" conduct with respect to terrorism, to define murder in connection with
terrorism as capital murder, to address the offense of hindering prosecution of terror-
ists, and to enhance penalties for those violations of the Penal Code committed as
acts of terrorism or as part of a scheme of terrorism.
FISCAL IMPACT
The increased cost to the state cannot be estimated. It should be noted that one of the
purposes of criminal law, as well as increased penalties, is to deter crime. The deter-
rence effect is also impossible to estimate.For more detail on. the Texas War Relief Package go to http://www.window.state.tx.us/wrp/
36 TEXAS RESPONDS - Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
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Texas. Comptroller's Office. Texas Responds: The Texas War Relief Package, text, November 2001; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth654370/m1/46/?q=%22~1%22~1: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.