Loading...
ORD CC 05/24/73 - Municipal courtAN :ORDINANCE AMENDING THE CODE OF ORDINANCES OF THE CITY OF HUNTS - VILLE, TEXAS, BY ADDING A NEW SECTION TO BE ENTITLED CHAPTER , PROVIDING FOR TERM OF MUNICIPAL COURT; PROCEDURE TO BE FOLLOWED IN THE TRIAL OF CASES; PROVIDING FOR RIGHT TO JURY TRIAL AND SELECTION OF JURORS; PROVIDING FOR SETTING AND TRIAL OF CASES; AND PROVIDING FOR ENFORCEMENT OF JUDGMENT. BE IT ORDAINED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS, THAT: Section 1. Term of Court. The Municipal Court shall have no terms and may sit at anytime for the transaction of the business of the Court. Section 2. Code of Criminal Procedure; Applicability. The trial of cases before the Municipal Court shall be governed by the Code of Criminal Procedure of the State of Texas applicable to Municipal Courts. Section 3. Setting and Trial of Cases. All Defendants, Attorneys and Bondsmen on Defendants' Bonds will be notified in writing ten (10) days prior to docket call at which time they will be requested to appear and have their client available for assignment of a trial setting. Upon call of the docket requests for jury settings will be received and all jury cases shall be assigned a number; thereafter, on the appointed date for Court, the cases will be tried in the order of their setting number. Upon call of the docket all non -jury cases shall proceed to trial, provided, that in the discretion of the Court, said cases may be continued to a later setting. The docket shall be called and cases set and tried at regular intervals of sufficient frequency to dispose of all cases without delay. Section 4. Right to Jury Trial; Selection of Jurors. Section A. Every person brought before the Municipal Court and charged with an offense shall be entitled to be tried by a lawful jury of six (6) persons. The Municipal Judge may set certain days of each week or month for the trial of jury cases. Juries for the Court shall be selected as follows: Between the 1st and 15th days of June of this year hereafter, the Clerk of the Municipal Court or one of his deputies, and the City Clerk or one of his deputies, shall meet together and select from the list of qualified jurors in the city, the jurors for service in the Municipal Court for the ensuing period.The list of jurors shall be taken from the voters registration list of the City of Huntsville. The officers shall write the names of all persons who are known to be qualified jurors under the law residing in the City on separate cards of uniform size and color, writing also on the cards, whenever possible, the post office address, of each juror so selected. The cards containing the names shall be deposited in a jury wheel to be provided for that purpose by the governing body of the City. The wheel shall be constructed of any durable material, shall be so con- structed so as to freely revolve on its axle, and may be equipped with a motor to revolve the wheel so as to thoroughly mix the cards. The wheel shall be locked at all times, except when in use as hereinafter provided, by the use of two separate locks so arranged that the key to one will not open the other lock. The wheel and the clasps into which the locks are fitted shall be arranged so that the wheel cannot be opened unless both of the locks are unlocked. The keys to the locks shall be kept one by the City Clerk and the other by the Clerk of the Municipal Court. The City Clerk and the Clerk of the Municipal Court shall not open the wheel nor permit it to be opened by any person except at the time and in the manner and by the persons herein specified. The City Clerk shall keep the wheel when not in use in a safe and secure place where it cannot be tampered with. Section B. Not less than 10 days before November 1 and May 1 of each year, the Clerk of the Municipal Court, or one of his deputies, and the City Clerk or one of his deputies, in the pre- sence and under the direction of the Municipal Judge shall draw from the wheel containing the names of jurors, after the wheel has been turned and the cards thoroughly mixed, one by one the names of jurors to provide the number directed by the Judge for each week of the six months next ensuing for which a jury may be required, and shall record the names as they are drawn upon a separate sheet of paper for each week for which jurors may be required. At the drawing no person other than those above named shall be permitted to be present. The officers attending the drawing shall not divulge the name of any person that may be drawn as a juror to any person. If at anytime during the next six months and prior to the next drawing date it appears that the list already drawn will be exhausted before the expiration of six months, additional lists for as many additional weeks as the judge may direct will be drawn, in the same manner. The several lists of names so drawn shall be certified under the hand of the Clerk of the municipal Court, or the deputy, doing the drawing and the Municipal Judge in whose presence the names were drawn, to be the lists drawn by him for that semi - annual period and shall be sealed up in separate envelopes endorsed "List No. of the Petit Jurors drawn on the day of , 19 , for the Municipal Court of Huntsville, Texas." The Clerk doing the drawing shall write his name across the seals of the envelopes and deliver them to the Judge who shall inspect the envelopes to see that they are properly en- dorsed and shall then deliver them to the Clerk of his deputy, and the Clerk shall then immediately file them away in some safe and secure place in his office under lock and key. When the names are drawn for jury service, the cards containing the names shall be sealed in separate envelopes endorsed "Cards containing the names of jurors list No. of the Petit Jurors drawn on the day of , 19 , for the Municipal Court of Huntsville, Texas." Each envelope shall be retained unopened by the Clerk until after the Jury selected from the corresponding list has been impaneled. After the jurors so impaneled have served four or more days, the envelope containing the cards bearing the names of the jurors on that list shall then be opened by the Clerk or his deputy and those cards bearing the names of the persons who have been impaneled and who have not served as many as four days shall be immediately returned to the wheel by the Clerk or his deputy; and the cards bearing the names of the persons serving as many as four days shall be put in a box provided for that purpose for the use of the officers who shall next select the jurors from the wheel. If any of the lists drawn are not used, the Clerk or his deputy shall open the envelopes containing the cards bearing the names of the unused lists immediately after the expiration of the six - month period and return the cards to the wheel. Section 5. Enforcement of Judgment. Section A. When a judgment and sentence have been rendered against a Defendant for a fine and he defaults in payment, the Court may order him improsioned in jail until discharged by law. A certified copy of the judgment, sentence, and order is suffic- ient to authorize such imprisonment. Section B. When a judgment and sentence have been rendered against a Defendant for a fine in his absence, the Court may order a capias issued for his arrest. The Chief of Police shall execute the capias by bringing the Defendant before the Court or by placing the Defendant in jail until he can be brought before the Court. Section C. Where such capias issued, it shall state the rendition and amount of the judgment and sentence, and command the Chief of Police to bring the Defendant before the Court or place him in jail until he can be brought before the Court. Section D. In each case of pecuniary fine, an execution may issue for the fine, though a capias was issued for the Defendant; and a capias may issue for the Defendant though execution was issued against his property. The execution shall be collected and returned as in civil actions. When the execution has been collected, the Defendant shall be at once discharged; and whenever the fine and costs have been legall y discharged in any way, the execution shall be returned satisfied. Section E. When a Defendant has been committed to jail in default of the fine adjudged against him, the further enforcement of such judgment and sentence shall be in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the State of Texas. Section F. When a Defendant is convicted and fined and he is unable to pay the fine adjudged against him, he may for such time as will satisfy the judgment be imprisoned in jail for a sufficient length of time to discharge the full amount of fine adjudged against him; rating such imprisonment at five dollars for each day thereof; provided, however that Defendant may pay the pecuniary fine assessed against him at any time while he iq serving his jail sentence, and in such instances he shall be entitled to a credit of five dollars for each day or fraCtion of a day that he has served and he shall only be required to pay his balance of the pecuniary fine assessed against him. PASSED AND APPROVED IN OPEN COUNCIL, on this the 41111_7.;' ay of May, A. D., 1973. ATTEST: CITY SECRETARY APPROVED AS TO FORM: or, MO IS I. WALLER, MAYOR MARTIN D. COLLEY, City Attorney