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Tex. Health & Safety Code § 841.121

AUTHORIZED PETITION FOR RELEASE

Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case Vandyke, Roger Dale (2017)

Most recently applied in Tex. Civil Commitment Office v. Hartshorn (May 2018)

Added by Acts 1999, 76th Leg., ch. 1188, Sec. 4.01, eff

How often courts cite this section

20032010201810
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(a) If the office determines that the committed person's behavioral abnormality has changed to the extent that the person is no longer likely to engage in a predatory act of sexual violence, the office shall authorize the person to petition the court for release.

(b) The petitioner shall serve a petition under this section on the court and the attorney representing the state.

(c) The judge shall set a hearing on a petition under this section not later than the 30th day after the date the judge receives the petition. The petitioner and the state are entitled to an immediate examination of the petitioner by an expert.

(d) On request of the petitioner or the attorney representing the state, the court shall conduct the hearing before a jury.

(e) The burden of proof at the hearing is on the state to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the petitioner's behavioral abnormality has not changed to the extent that the petitioner is no longer likely to engage in a predatory act of sexual violence.

Official source: Texas Constitution and Statutes. Reproduced from public-domain Texas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.