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Texas Code of Criminal Procedure - Article 49.14. Inquest Hearing

Legal Research Home > Texas Lawyer > Code of Criminal Procedure > Texas Code of Criminal Procedure - Article 49.14. Inquest Hearing

Art. 49.14. [979] [1069] [1032] INQUEST HEARING.  (a) A 
justice of the peace conducting an inquest may hold an inquest 
hearing if the justice determines that the circumstances warrant 
the hearing.  The justice shall hold an inquest hearing if requested 
to do so by a district attorney or a criminal district attorney who 
serves the county in which the body was found.
	(b)  An inquest hearing may be held with or without a jury 
unless the district attorney or criminal district attorney requests 
that the hearing be held with a jury.
	(c)  A jury in an inquest hearing is composed of six persons.  
Jurors shall be summoned in the same manner as are jurors for county 
court.  A juror who is properly summoned and fails to appear, other 
than a juror exempted by law, commits an offense.  An offense under 
this subsection is punishable by a fine not to exceed $100.
	(d)  A justice of the peace may hold a public or a private 
inquest hearing.  If a person has been arrested and charged with 
causing the death of the deceased, the defendant and the 
defendant's counsel are entitled to be present at the inquest 
hearing, examine witnesses, and introduce evidence.
	(e)  A justice of the peace may issue a subpoena to enforce 
the attendance of a witness at an inquest hearing and may issue an 
attachment for a person who is subpoenaed and fails to appear at the 
time and place cited on the subpoena.
	(f)  A justice of the peace may require bail of a witness to 
secure the appearance of the witness at an inquest hearing or before 
a grand jury, examining court, or other court investigating a 
death.
	(g)  The justice of the peace shall swear witnesses appearing 
at an inquest hearing.  The justice and an attorney representing the 
state may examine witnesses at an inquest hearing.  The justice 
shall direct that all sworn testimony be reduced to writing and the 
justice shall subscribe the transcription.
	(h)  Only the justice of the peace, a person charged in the 
death under investigation, the counsel for the person charged, and 
an attorney representing the state may question a witness at an 
inquest hearing.
	(i)  A justice of the peace may hold a person who disrupts the 
proceedings of an inquest hearing in contempt of court.  A person 
who is found in contempt of court under this subsection may be fined 
in an amount not to exceed $100 and removed from court by a peace 
officer.

Amended by Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 529, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 
1987.       

Last modified: August 11, 2007