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Chapter 71

Chapter 71

Organized Crime

71.20  Statutory History of Penal Code Section 71.023

Comment

The offense of “directing activities of certain criminal street gangs” was added to chapter 71 of the Penal Code in 2009. As originally enacted, the section defined “criminal street gang” narrowly, “[n]otwithstanding Section 71.01.” The offense was renamed by the Eighty-third Legislature in 2013, deleting the word certain. The section now uses the same definition of criminal street gang applied to other offenses in chapter 71.

As revised in 2013, the offense now carries a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty-five years, which may make it more attractive to prosecutors.