New Texas Criminal Laws in 2025

In this article, Texas criminal defense attorney Paul Saputo examines all (or at least, the vast majority) of the new Texas criminal laws that were passed by the 89th Legislature and imposed on Texans – and anyone that visits Texas – effective in 2025.

Get to know the new criminal statutes that you’ll be required to abide by in Texas – whether you live here or you’re just passing through.

Brand New Texas Crimes in 2025 — Saputo Toufexis Legislative Update

• Continuous Sexual Abuse (Penal Code §21.03) —
  • This new offense applies when a person 17 or older commits two or more acts of sexual abuse against two or more victims over 30 or more days. Unlike Continuous Sexual Abuse of Young Child or Disabled Individual in §21.02, which only covers young children and disabled victims, this new offense in §21.03 applies regardless of age or disability status, but only if there are multiple different victims. The new Continuous Sexual Abuse offense is classified as a first degree felony.
• Jugging (Penal Code §29.04) —
  • This offense allows police to arrest you if they believe (technically, have probable cause to believe) that you were traveling on the same path as someone else from a business or financial institution while possessing two or more “criminal instruments” with the “intent” to steal cash. We express reservations about the potential for abuse with a statute that criminalizes “traveling” – the very act of moving on the same path as someone else is now an element of a criminal offense. Penalties for this offense scale up if you also commit an actual vehicle burglary or robbery.
• Unauthorized Possession of Certain Copper or Brass Material (Penal Code §31.22) —
  • This offense criminalizes knowingly possessing copper/brass material unless you are an “authorized possessor” (see the authorized-possessor list) and bars any authorization if the actor knows the material was unlawfully obtained. Penalties start at a state jail felony and increase under the penalty scheme.
• Unlawful Conduct Involving Mail Receptacle Key or Lock (Penal Code §32.56) —
  • This tools-of-the-crime statute criminalizes obtaining, possessing, duplicating, transferring, and using postal-adopted keys or locks with intent to harm, defraud, or steal. It is generally a third degree felony, but it can be enhanced to second degree with a qualifying prior.
  • Note that the legislature enacted multiple different offenses that it codified under the same subsection – Penal Code §32.56.
• Fraudulent Use, Possession, or Tampering with Gift Card (Penal Code §32.56) —
  • The legislature enacted this offense to combat gift-card draining. It covers possessing stolen card data, swapping packaging, using counterfeit cards, and re-seeding store racks with unactivated cards. The penalty ladder scales the offense level by the number of cards and data items rather than dollar value.
  • Note that the legislature enacted multiple different offenses that it codified under the same subsection – Penal Code §32.56.
• False or Fraudulent Real Property Document (Penal Code §32.56) —
  • This new offense targets knowingly presenting sham deeds, leases, or similar instruments to enter or remain on property, addressing document-based squatting schemes distinct from simple trespass.
  • Note that the legislature enacted multiple different offenses that it codified under the same subsection – Penal Code §32.56.
• Financial Abuse Using Artificially Generated Media or Phishing (Penal Code §32.56) —
  • This criminalizes two modern fraud paths: using disseminated deepfake content to perpetrate financial abuse and deceiving/manipulating victims via digital communications to obtain personal/financial/identifying data, while providing a safe harbor for intermediaries.
  • Note that the legislature enacted multiple different offenses that it codified under the same subsection – Penal Code §32.56.
• Continuous Promotion of Prostitution (Penal Code §43.032) —
  • Under this law, the State need not prove exact dates or the same acts so long as jurors unanimously find two or more qualifying acts of Promotion of Prostitution occurred within a 30-day period. The statute also limits multiple counts when the offense conduct involves the same accuser. This offense was also added to the list of offenses without a limitations period.
• Fraudulent Sale, Rental, or Lease of Residential Real Property (Penal Code §32.57) —
  • This crime targets residential real-estate scams, including schemes to sell, rent, or lease residential property through false pretenses or forged instruments. This follows in the wake of a popular NPR podcast’s expose on a kind of scam that exploits how real estate is bought and sold.
• Promotion or Possession of Child-like Sex Doll (Penal Code §43.231) —
  • This law criminalizes the promotion or possession of an “obscene,” anatomically correct doll, mannequin, or robot with the features of a child intended for sexual stimulation. The new law includes a presumption that you possessed with the intent to promote if you possess two or more of these things.
• Possession, Promotion, or Production of Certain Visual Material Appearing to Depict Child (Penal Code §43.235) —
  • This new statute targets “obscene” visual material that appears to depict a child (including AI-generated or animated images) and criminalizes the use of an actual child’s image to train AI models to produce material that would be considered child pornography if it were real.
• Transnational Repression (Penal Code §76.045) —
  • This new offense allows prosecutors to charge you if they believe you were acting as an “agent of a foreign government or foreign terrorist organization” and committed or conspired to commit one of the listed offenses (e.g., Assault, Harassment, Stalking, Trafficking) to force someone to act for that foreign power, to make them leave or be confined in the United States, to discourage protected speech, or to retaliate for protected speech. We have concerns about the constitutionality of this law.
• Unauthorized Enforcement of Foreign Law (Penal Code §76.046) —
  • This new offense allows the state to prosecute anyone who they allege is an “agent of a foreign government or foreign terrorist organization” who prevents someone from violating foreign laws or monitor or surveils someone for the same purpose without prior Texas or U.S. authorization.
• Offense of Notarization for Person Not Personally Appearing (Gov’t Code §406.0091) —
  • This new offense makes it a crime for a notary to perform a notarization knowing the signer did not personally appear (in person or via compliant two-way audio-video), with a narrow impostor-ID defense.

2025 Amendments to Existing Texas Criminal Offenses — Saputo Toufexis Legislative Update

• Criminal Attempt (Penal Code §15.01) — the longstanding rule that an attempt is punished one category lower than the completed offense now has a carve-out: if the underlying offense is Capital Murder of a Peace Officer under §19.03(a)(1), the attempt is not reduced and is punished as a first degree felony with an enhanced range of 25 years to life, and it is ineligible for the more lenient parole/mandatory-supervision rules that typically apply to attempt cases.
• Criminal Solicitation of a Minor (Penal Code §15.031) — the 2025 amendment expands the list of qualifying offenses to include Continuous Sexual Abuse (an offense newly-enacted in 2025), so asking/encouraging a minor to commit that offense now triggers liability.
• Trafficking of Persons (Penal Code §20A.02) — the 2025 amendments raise the default penalty in some subsections to a first degree felony, a significant change from prior law where many subsections started at the second degree level unless an enhancement applied. This creates a higher baseline punishment and in some provisions conflicts with the tiered scheme left by the 2023 enhancements. Although the legislature passed this one bill upgrading the penalty classification to a first degree felony, two other bills passed the legislature retaining the second degree felony classification. All of the bills kept the penalty level description in subsection (b), so the current law has two separate and concurrent subsection (b) provisions – one with a default classification of a first degree felony and another with a default classification of a second degree felony. The result is two conflicting subsection (b) provisions in force at the same time.
• Continuous Trafficking of Persons (Penal Code §20A.03) — the legislature added a provision barring a specific defense to prosecution, clarifying that it is not a defense that a child or disabled individual lacked the culpable mental state to engage in the act of prostitution or did not complete the act. This limitation applies only when the underlying continuous-trafficking conduct is premised on §20A.02(a)(7) or (8) when the allegation involves causing the victim to engage in or become the victim of prostitution. This is the first amendment to this statute since its 2015 enactment.
• Invasive Visual Recording (Penal Code §21.15) — the 2025 update broadens the statute beyond bathrooms and dressing rooms to cover any place with a “reasonable expectation of privacy” (and adds a definition for that) and also adds sex offender registration consequences.
• Unlawful Disclosure or Promotion of Intimate Visual Material (Penal Code §21.16) — effective September 1, 2025, the legislature broadened “visual material” to include any digital file capable of displaying an image on a screen, closing a loophole that non-physical media.
• Unlawful Production or Distribution of Certain Sexually Explicit Videos (Deep Fake Pornography) (Penal Code §21.165) — substantially amended in 2025 to reflect the technology’s expansion: the law’s name was changed to cover “media,” not just “videos,” and the amendments expand its scope beyond video to other AI-generated formats while retaining the core prohibitions on producing, distributing, or threatening to distribute deepfake sexual content without effective consent as described in the law.
• Voyeurism (Penal Code §21.17) — the 2025 rewrite raises the baseline offense level and adds more (and higher-grade) enhancements, building on the 2023 clarification that the offense includes remote electronic observation so prosecutors can charge spying accomplished via cameras or similar devices.
• Sexual Coercion (Penal Code §21.18) — effective September 1, 2025, the legislature expanded the predicate-offense list to include the newly created Continuous Sexual Abuse, so threats that demand money, sexual services, or intimate visual material now reach schemes leveraging that new offense.
• Assault (Penal Code §22.01) — the 2025 changes extend enhancement coverage by adding utility employees or agents performing their duties to the subsection (b) felony-enhancement group, update the subsection (d) presumption to include those workers, and define “utility.”
• Sexual Assault (Penal Code §22.011) — the Legislature added an explicit definition of consent and broadened the scope of non-consensual scenarios by removing the prior requirement that the state prove the actor was responsible for secretly intoxicating the accuser; now the statute treats sexual activity as without consent whenever the accuser is “incapable of consenting” and the actor “knows” it, creating a strict-liability framework without any explicit threshold for how incapacity must be determined.
• Indecent Assault (Penal Code §22.012) — the 2025 update adds new enhanced penalties for specified circumstances beyond the 2023 state jail felony upgrade, tightening the punishment ladder for conduct that previously sat between Class C offensive-contact Assault and felony Sexual Assault.
• Aggravated Assault (Penal Code §22.02) — the legislature created a new first degree enhancement when a civilly committed person assaults Texas Civil Commitment Office staff or contractors (with a uniform/badge presumption of knowledge) and also broadened the vehicle-discharge enhancement; see the enhancement section in the Saputo Toufexis 2025 analysis for how these changes raise exposure.
• Aggravated Sexual Assault (Penal Code §22.021) — the 2025 amendment raises the age threshold for victims who trigger the mandatory minimum term of 25 years, expanding the circumstances for when the highest punishment floor applies among the statute’s aggravating circumstances.
• Abandoning or Endangering Child, Elderly Individual, or Disabled Individual (Penal Code §22.041) — lawmakers expanded the endangerment presumptions to include exposure to Penalty Group 1-B substances (for example, fentanyl), building on the 2023 expansion that added elderly and disabled victims.
• Deadly Conduct (Penal Code §22.05) — the 2025 revision clarifies that there is no presumption of recklessness when peace officers point firearms at others in the course of duty.
• Harassment By Persons In Certain Facilities; Harassment of Public Servant (Penal Code §22.11) — the 2025 changes broaden covered substances to any fluid or liquid, expand prohibited intents to include “annoy, abuse, torment, or embarrass,” add a uniform/badge presumption for civil-commitment cases, and specify that advance warning to the target is not a defense.
• Violation of Certain Court Orders or Conditions of Bond (Penal Code §25.07) — the legislature added a new state jail felony enhancement when the violation occurs while possessing a deadly weapon, layering this on top of the existing Class A default and third degree enhancements for repeat, assaultive, or stalking-related violations.
• Repeated Violation of Certain Court Orders (Penal Code §25.072) — the Legislature added a new second degree felony enhancement when the repeated violations occur while the actor possesses a deadly weapon, elevating punishment above the baseline felony for serial violations within 12 months.
• Criminal Mischief (Penal Code §28.03) — the 2025 update (1) creates a third degree felony for damaging copper or brass components tied to critical infrastructure if operations are impaired and (2) creates a second degree felony when a habitation is damaged during a criminal trespass with loss under $300,000, expanding the statute’s value-and-context enhancement ladder.
• Trespass by License Holder with a Concealed Handgun (Penal Code §30.06) — lawmakers added a defense for tactical medical professionals, expanding the ever-growing list of defenses to prosecution.
• Trespass by License Holder with an Openly Carried Handgun (Penal Code §30.07) — like §30.06, most changes have expanded defenses, and in the same fashion, the 2025 amendment to this law adds a defense for tactical medical professionals.
• Theft (Penal Code §31.03) — the 2025 legislation adds an enhancement to the penalty scheme if the stolen property is copper or brass and the theft targets a critical infrastructure facility or appurtenant equipment/communication wires.
• Theft of Service (Penal Code §31.04) — the legislature created separate notice rules for liability under Subsection (a)(4) and authorized notice by e-mail or text message in lieu of registered or certified mail, building on the 2019 rental-property presumptions and the expanded notice addresses adopted in 2023.
• Theft of Trade Secrets (Penal Code §31.05) — the 2025 amendment adds definitions for “foreign agent,” “foreign government,” and “foreign instrumentality” and upgrades punishment to a second degree felony when the actor intended to benefit any of those foreign entities.
• Organized Retail Theft (Penal Code §31.16) — the Legislature broadened the offense beyond fencing by adding coordinated “overwhelm security” conduct, shoplifting on two or more occasions within 180 days, and benefit-from-venture scenarios, adopted a special value rule for retail merchandise (explicitly including gift cards), and added charging/evidentiary provisions.
• Theft of Petroleum Product (Penal Code §31.19) — as described in the Saputo Toufexis 2025 analysis, the 2025 overhaul adds coverage for theft of equipment, certain petroleum-product conduct (including disposal-chain transport when the initial owner cannot be identified and RRC-unauthorized storing/purchasing/trading). The amendments raise the minimum grade to a third degree felony, and lower the first degree threshold to $100,000.
• Mail Theft (Penal Code §31.20) — the amendments drop the “mailbox or premises” element, expands “mail” to items delivered but not yet received by the addressee, adds an alternative “intent to steal a negotiable instrument” with its own enhancement ladder (including elderly/disabled-victim enhancements), and creates rebuttable possession presumptions for multi-item cases.
• Forgery (Penal Code §32.21) — the 2025 legislation significantly increases punishment levels (reclassifying many misdemeanors as felonies and elevating numerous felony grades), building on the 2017 value-based scheme.
• Stealing or Receiving Stolen Check (Penal Code §32.24) — amended in 2025 to raise the offense from a Class A misdemeanor to a state jail felony for conduct on or after September 1, 2025, with a corresponding felony limitations period (and a new seven-year limitations rule for Chapter 32 felonies).
• Refusal to Execute Release of Fraudulent Lien (Penal Code §32.49) — the 2025 amendment increases penalties when the victim is a public servant and, for felony versions, aligns with the expanded seven-year limitations period.
• Obstruction or Retaliation (Penal Code §36.06) — the 2025 amendment expands the “doxxing” pathway by covering disclosures made through electronic communication and broadens who qualifies as a public servant for this subsection to civil commitment contractors and employees.
• Barratry and Solicitation of Professional Employment (Penal Code §38.12) — amended in 2025 by adding solicitations for employment made through social media and other electronic means.
• Interference with Public Duties (Penal Code §38.15) — the 2025 change adds utility employees and agents to the protected list and defines “utility,” expanding the scope of covered responders. The legislature also added this offense to the disaster-area enhancement statute that allows an enhancement if the offense is committed in a declared disaster area or an area subject to an emergency evacuation order.
• Failure to Stop or Report Sexual or Assaultive Offense Against Child (Penal Code §38.17) — renamed and expanded in 2025 so the duty to assist or immediately report is no longer limited to Aggravated Sexual Assault and Continuous Sexual Abuse of Young Child or Disabled Individual but applies to any sexual or assaultive offense against a child, increases penalties, and authorizes prosecution under this section, another law, or both for post–Sept. 1, 2025 conduct. This offense was also added to the list of offenses that have no limitations period.
• Improper Contact with Victim (Penal Code §38.111) — the 2025 amendment adds Stalking to the list of qualifying accuser-offenses that bar inmate contact absent written permission from the accuser or guardian.
• Harassment (Penal Code §42.07) — the Legislature corrected duplicate numbering by designating tracking/monitoring as subsection (a)(9) and temporary/disposable number communications as (a)(10), and added a Class A enhancement when the victim is a utility employee, contractor, or agent performing job duties.
• Disrupting Meeting or Procession (Penal Code §42.05) — the 2025 update extends the offense to virtual meetings and virtual components of meetings, including disturbances through electronic means (including hacking) in addition to physical action and verbal utterances.
• Texas Doxxing Law: Unlawful Disclosure Of Residence Address Or Telephone Number (Penal Code §42.074) — amended in 2025 to cover disclosures made “through an electronic communication,” incorporating the definition of that term from the Harassment statute, supplementing the original 2023 prohibition on posting to publicly accessible websites.
• Cruelty to Nonlivestock Animals (Penal Code §42.092) — the 2025 amendment adds “with criminal negligence” to §42.092(b)’s mental states and creates a defense to prosecution under the “criminal negligence” standard for licensed veterinarians and their assistants acting in the actual discharge of their duties.
• Operation of Unmanned Aircraft Over Airport or Military Installation (Penal Code §42.15) — the legislature added spaceports to the protected sites, so flying drones over or near airports, military installations, or spaceports is covered for post–Sept. 1, 2025 conduct.
• Compelling Prostitution (Penal Code §43.05) — the 2025 update adds a rule for cases involving children or disabled individuals: it is not a defense that the actor lacked the culpable mental state or that the act of prostitution was not completed.
• Sale, Distribution, or Display of Harmful Material to Minor (Penal Code §43.24) — the 2025 amendment repeals a prior affirmative defense subsection that applied to scientific, educational, governmental, or other similar purposes and replaces it with a narrower defense limited to judicial or law-enforcement officers acting in their official duties.
• Sexual Performance by a Child (Penal Code §43.25) — the legislature narrowed subsection (f)’s affirmative defense in a similar manner to how it narrowed the affirmative defense in §43.24 so that, for post–Sept. 1, 2025 conduct, the affirmative defense applies only to actors who were judicial or law-enforcement officers discharging official duties.
• Possession or Promotion of Child Pornography (Penal Code §43.26) — the legislature comprehensively revised this law in 2025, as described in the Saputo Toufexis 2025 analysis, to cover both actual minors and virtually indistinguishable computer-generated “children,” add “knew or should have known” knowledge standards for visual material (whether real or AI-generated depictions), and overhaul the penalty scheme adopted in 2023.
• Electronic Transmission of Certain Visual Material Depicting Minor (Penal Code §43.261) — the 2025 change adds realistic AI-generated depictions that are virtually indistinguishable from an actual minor engaged in sexual conduct to the covered visual material.
• Possession or Promotion of Lewd Visual Material Depicting Child (Penal Code §43.262) — amended in 2025 to add AI-generated depictions that to a reasonable person are virtually indistinguishable from an actual child, expanding beyond the already broad “lewd” standard.
• Prohibited Weapons (Penal Code §46.05) — the legislature removed short-barrel firearms from the list of prohibited weapons.
• Prohibition of the Purchase and Sale of Human Organs (Penal Code §48.02) — the 2025 amendment increases the punishment classification to a state jail felony for offenses committed on or after Sept. 1, 2025.
• Driving While Intoxicated (Penal Code §49.04) — the Legislature added a new school-crossing-zone enhancement for offenses on/after Sept. 1, 2025.
• Intoxication Manslaughter (Penal Code §49.08) — while §49.08’s elements are unchanged, the §49.09 penalty provisions were expanded in 2025 to allow classification as a first degree felony in additional scenarios (e.g., multiple deaths in one transaction or committing the offense while in violation of Chapter 51 after a prior intoxication offense).
• Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity (Penal Code §71.02) — the Legislature expanded and re-ordered predicate offenses and, because two bills amended the same subsection, there are now two versions of §71.02(a) simultaneously in effect (one effective May 30, 2025 and another effective Sept. 1, 2025).
• Distribution or Sale of Kratom Product to Minor (Health & Safety Code §445.004) — a recodification moved the statute from Chapter 444 to Chapter 445 with no change to the prohibited conduct.
• Manufacture, Delivery, or Possession of Miscellaneous Substances (Health & Safety Code §481.119) — statute unchanged, but as of Sept. 1, 2025 a new enhancement applies if a social-media platform was used in furtherance of the offense.
• Delivery of Marihuana/Marijuana (Health & Safety Code §481.120) — statute unchanged, but the 2025 amendment increases punishment when the State proves use of a social-media platform in furtherance of the offense.
• Confidentiality of Judicial Work Product (Gov’t Code §21.013) — the 2025 amendment narrows what counts as “judicial work product,” refining the scope of protected materials by excluding information related to a person who is required to submit to electronic monitoring of the person’s location as part of an electronic monitoring program under Article 42.035, Code of Criminal Procedure, or as a condition of community supervision, parole, mandatory supervision, or release on bail.

Other 2025 Amendments to Texas Criminal Law

The limitations period for all Chapter 32 felonies (including felony Fraudulent Use or Possession of Credit Card or Debit Card Information) moved to seven years for conduct on or after September 1, 2025.

Stalking is added to the list of offenses ineligible for judge-ordered community supervision, changing probation eligibility for offenses committed on or after Sept. 1, 2025

Probation eligibility for Chapter 51 offenses (Illegal Entry From Foreign Nation, Illegal Reentry By Certain Aliens, and Refusal To Comply With Order To Return To Foreign Nation) was restricted by amendments to Chapter 42A so that courts may not grant community supervision upon conviction for offenses in this Chapter.

The legislature amended Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 38.072 to require trial courts to admit more than one outcry statement if each statement meets the requirements of 38.072(a) and describes different conduct by the defendant.

Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 18.067 — any peace officer can now execute a blood warrant for offenses under PC §§ 49.04, 49.045, 49.05, 49.06, 49.061, 49.065, 49.07, and 49.08. This includes every intoxication offense under Chapter 49 except Public Intoxication and Possession of Alcoholic Beverage in Motor Vehicle.

Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 27.20 now requires that a defendant be taken into custody upon adjudication for any offense listed in Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 42A.054 that is punishable as a first degree felony or second degree felony if they are not eligible for community supervision under Art. 42A.055 or Art. 42A.056.

Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 17.291 now provides for a “mandatory four hour hold” after bond is posted for family violence offenses if there is probable cause to believe violence may continue if immediately released.  …and the hold can be extended up to 48 hours.

Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 17.03 (a), (b-2) was amended to prohibit personal bond for a defendant charged with:

• Murder as result of man/del PG 1-B;
• Terroristic Threat, Class A misdemeanor or higher;
• Violation of Certain Court Orders or Conditions of Bond in a Family Violence, Child Abuse or Neglect, Sexual Assault or Abuse, Indecent Assault, Stalking, or Trafficking Case;
• Unlawful Possession of a Firearm; or
• any felony or misdemeanor Assault, Deadly Conduct, or Disorderly Conduct involving firearm if arrested while on bail, community supervision, or parole for an offense involving violence.

Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 17.027 was amended to prohibit a magistrate from releasing on bail a defendant who:

1. Is charged with a felony and was:
   • on release for another felony at the time of the instant offense;
   • has previously been finally convicted and imprisoned in TDCJ for two or more felony offenses; or
   • is subject to an immigration detainer; or
2. Is charged with committing: Capital Murder, Murder, Aggravated Kidnapping, or Aggravated Sexual Assault.

Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 17.09 amended to provide for review of a magistrate’s bail decision by the next business day upon request from the prosecution.

Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 44.01 is amended to permit the highly expedited appellate review of a bond amount set for the following offenses:

Murder, Capital Murder, certain Aggravated Assault cases, Aggravated Kidnapping, Aggravated Robbery, Aggravated Sexual Assault, Indecency with a Child, Trafficking of Persons, Continuous Trafficking of Persons, or is charged with a felony offense and was released on bail for a felony offense at the time the instant offense was committed.

Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 17.09 was amended to permit a judge or magistrate to find that a bond is defective, excessive or insufficient, or that the sureties are unacceptable, or for any other good and sufficient cause, the judge can at any point cause the defendant to be rearrested and give another bond in such amount as the judge or magistrate deems proper.

Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 17.092 prohibits magistrates from reducing the amount or conditions of bond set by a district court judge, even if the judge is in another county.

Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 17.21 was amended to require all persons accused of a felony to appear before the magistrate and for the magistrate to consider the PSR prepared under Art. 17.022.