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Relating to the punishment for the criminal offense of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
Providing for a penalty reduction would result in a positive fiscal impact. Whether the bill would result in a significant fiscal impact is indeterminate due to the lack of data or information that would allow the number of cases in which the physical evidence tampered with or fabricated related only to an offense punishable as a misdemeanor to be distinguished from all other tampering with or fabricating physical evidence cases. These data are necessary to estimate the extent of the fiscal impact associated with implementing the bill's provisions.
HB 789 would downgrade the tampering or destroying of evidence for a criminal offense that is a misdemeanor from a third-degree felony to a Class A misdemeanor.
Texas Action supports HB 789 because it sets a more reasonable scale of punishment for tampering with evidence. Enforcing the same criminal penalties for tampering for offenses that vary drastically in seriousness constitutes overcriminalization and results in unnecessarily severe punishment. HB 789 would correct this discrepancy.
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