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1973 Amid the controversy over capital punishment and drugs, the legislature substantially revised the Texas Penal Code for the first time since its enactment in 1856.' The contribution of the new Code to rational and enlightened administration of criminal justice in this state is substantial, but it should not be overstated.
Only "significant penal law" is Teformed by the Code; 2 many statutes that merely employ a penal sanction were simply transferred to "appropriate places within the framework of Texas statute law."' As a result, the Code has increased, without revising, the constantly growing mass of statutes scattered throughout the civil statutes which impose fines and imprisonment. 4 A large share of 'these statutes are of a regulatory nature rather than proscriptions of hard core criminality, and many violations are not prosecuted. Nevertheless, they constitute the majority of criminal statutes in this state, and remain virtually unaffected by the new Code., It should not be concluded that even that part of the penal law affected by the revision has been reformed either radically or completely. Substantive reform of some problem areas was neither achieved nor 'attempted. Conceptual and verbal inadequacies still exist.
For more:
- UNDERSTANDING THE COMPLEXITIES OF THE TEXAS PENAL CODE.
- Texas Legislative Council: CODE PROJECTS.
- TAMU: Researching Texas Law: Constitution & Statutes.
