{"id":388534,"date":"2026-07-28T02:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T02:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/388534\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T02:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T02:19:09","slug":"petition-pushes-texas-legislature-to-strengthen-bail-reform-after-hannah-rapps-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/388534\/","title":{"rendered":"Petition pushes Texas Legislature to strengthen bail reform after Hannah Rapp\u2019s death"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) &#8211; More than 10,000 people have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/justice-for-hannah-rapp?utm_source=organic&amp;utm_medium=facebook&amp;utm_campaign=owned&amp;utm_term=image-07242026&amp;utm_content=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/justice-for-hannah-rapp?utm_source=organic&amp;utm_medium=facebook&amp;utm_campaign=owned&amp;utm_term=image-07242026&amp;utm_content=US\">signed a petition<\/a> calling for \u201cHannah\u2019s Law,\u201d a proposed reform to Texas\u2019s bond system inspired by the death of 26-year-old rising boxer Hannah Rapp, who was struck and killed while riding her bike on FM 159 in Brazos County on July 18.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The man charged in her death has a lengthy criminal record and has been booked into the Brazos County Jail more than a dozen times since 2012.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kbtx.com\/2026\/07\/28\/support-hannahs-law-grows-suspect-prepares-tuesday-appearances-brazos-county-courtroom\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.kbtx.com\/2026\/07\/28\/support-hannahs-law-grows-suspect-prepares-tuesday-appearances-brazos-county-courtroom\/\">Charles Medina<\/a> is set to appear in court on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The petition calls on the Texas Legislature to give judges greater authority to deny or revoke bond for repeat and dangerous offenders. It asks for expanded judicial authority consistent with the Texas Constitution, for courts to consider a defendant\u2019s documented offense history, for stronger accountability for repeat offenders, and for the prioritization of public safety while preserving constitutional rights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">During the 89th legislative session, the Texas Legislature passed Proposition 3, approved by voters in November, which authorized judges to deny bail for nine specific offenses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">State Rep. Paul Dyson of District 14 said the original version of the bill \u2014 SJR 5 \u2014 was broader before being negotiated down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cAs it was originally introduced, it was a little bit broader than just the nine focus,\u201d Dyson said. \u201cOriginally it started out as violent offenses \u2014 and that potentially could have reached some of the incidents we\u2019re talking about with the defendant in this case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Dyson said his team has already reached out to the speaker\u2019s policy team on criminal jurisprudence and is building support for expanding the law in the 90th Legislature \u2014 a process that would require another constitutional amendment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cYou don\u2019t ever do it by yourself \u2014 you\u2019ve got to build that consensus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Dyson encouraged supporters to contact their state representatives directly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cI would highly encourage them to reach out to all of their representatives throughout the state of Texas to let them know that this is something they want added,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 KBTX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) &#8211; More than 10,000 people have signed a petition calling for \u201cHannah\u2019s Law,\u201d a proposed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388535,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-388534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}