LOUISIANA BAR EXAM CRIMINAL LAW 114
2026 PRACTICE TEST QUESTIONS AND
DETAILED HOMICIDE THEFT AND INCHOATE
OFFENSES BREAKDOWN FULL REVIEW
◉ Omission to Act where there is a legal duty. Answer: Normally
failure to act isn't criminal, but a legal duty can arise via statute, K,
relationship, voluntary undertaking to rescue that is abandoned, or
failing to help after creating the peril (i.e. hit and run).
◉ Mens Rea. Answer: Culpable State of mind that actuated the
criminal act or omission. D can act with purpose, knowledge or
intent.
◉ Purpose. Answer: D acts with the conscious object to bring about
the result. i.e. shooting someone to kill.
◉ Knowledge. Answer: D engages in conduct that he knows, with
almost absolute certainty, will produce a prohibited result i.e.
planting a bomb to kill 1 person, but knowing it will kill 10 others.
◉ Intent. Answer: D acts with purpose or knowledge. For inchoate
offenses, almost always means purpose only.
,◉ Willful. Answer: Synonym for intent. D acts purposefully or
knowingly with moral turpitude.
◉ Recklessly. Answer: Acting with awareness that the conduct
creates an unjustifiable risk to others, but ignores that risk and
engages in the conduct anyway. Different from knowledge because D
is aware he is creating risk but doesn't have substantial certainty
that the risk will occur.
◉ Criminal Negligence. Answer: D creates an unjustifiable risk
without subjective awareness he is doing so, but a reasonable
person would have been aware. Requires gross deviation from
reasonable standard of care (greater than tort neg). Different from
recklessness- D is not subjectively aware of the risk creation.
◉ Specific Intent. Answer: Requires proof D intended to produce a
specifically prohibited harm. If statute says "with intent to," this
means specific intent.
◉ General Intent. Answer: Only requires a desire to do the
proscribed act, generally incorporates reckless and neg states of
mind.
,◉ Specific and General Intent Examples. Answer: D is charged with
assault with intent to commit murder, assault is usually only general
intent while intent to murder is a specific intent. Specific intent may
be nullified by an honest but unreasonable mistake of fact, voluntary
intoxication. Only an honest and reasonable mistake of fact will
nullify general intent.
◉ Malice. Answer: Essential mens rea element for murder at
common law.
◉ Express Malice to kill. Answer: D intended to kill another human.
D can act with purpose to kill another, with knowledge her conduct
would kill another, or with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm on
the victim.
◉ Implied Malice to kill. Answer: Where D caused a death as a result
of extreme recklessness or criminal negligence that manifested a
wanton disregard for human life. Killing may be unintentional.
Malice is also implied for felony murder.
◉ Exam Tip for Murder. Answer: Any unlawful killing + malice =
murder, even if D didn't set out to kill someone or didn't even expect
his conduct would cause death.
◉ Strict Liability Crimes. Answer: Only require the act and no mens
rea. i.e. statutory rape.
, ◉ Transferred Intent. Answer: Where D intends to produce a
criminal result against one party but inadvertently harms another.
Intent transfers to the unintended victim, not a defense that D
harmed the wrong person.
◉ Concurrence. Answer: Needed to prove guilt, have to show the
criminal act was set in motion by the requisite criminal state of mind
and that mens rea and criminal act concurred precisely in time. i.e. D
breaks into house to escape rain, sees valuable item and decides to
steal it. Not burglary because breaking and entering was not
actuated by the requisite mens rea- which occurred later.
◉ Legal Cause. Answer: D's conduct must be both the actual and
proximate cause of the specified criminal result. Actual cause +
proximate cause = legal cause.
◉ Actual Cause Tests. Answer: 1. The criminal result would not have
occurred "but for" D's act. 2. If there were multiple causes, D's act
was a "substantial factor" in causing the criminal result. 3. D
"accelerated" an inevitable result. i.e. D1 stabs victim, D2 then
shoots him in the head.
◉ Proximate Cause. Answer: Established when the harm produced
by D was objectively foreseeable.
2026 PRACTICE TEST QUESTIONS AND
DETAILED HOMICIDE THEFT AND INCHOATE
OFFENSES BREAKDOWN FULL REVIEW
◉ Omission to Act where there is a legal duty. Answer: Normally
failure to act isn't criminal, but a legal duty can arise via statute, K,
relationship, voluntary undertaking to rescue that is abandoned, or
failing to help after creating the peril (i.e. hit and run).
◉ Mens Rea. Answer: Culpable State of mind that actuated the
criminal act or omission. D can act with purpose, knowledge or
intent.
◉ Purpose. Answer: D acts with the conscious object to bring about
the result. i.e. shooting someone to kill.
◉ Knowledge. Answer: D engages in conduct that he knows, with
almost absolute certainty, will produce a prohibited result i.e.
planting a bomb to kill 1 person, but knowing it will kill 10 others.
◉ Intent. Answer: D acts with purpose or knowledge. For inchoate
offenses, almost always means purpose only.
,◉ Willful. Answer: Synonym for intent. D acts purposefully or
knowingly with moral turpitude.
◉ Recklessly. Answer: Acting with awareness that the conduct
creates an unjustifiable risk to others, but ignores that risk and
engages in the conduct anyway. Different from knowledge because D
is aware he is creating risk but doesn't have substantial certainty
that the risk will occur.
◉ Criminal Negligence. Answer: D creates an unjustifiable risk
without subjective awareness he is doing so, but a reasonable
person would have been aware. Requires gross deviation from
reasonable standard of care (greater than tort neg). Different from
recklessness- D is not subjectively aware of the risk creation.
◉ Specific Intent. Answer: Requires proof D intended to produce a
specifically prohibited harm. If statute says "with intent to," this
means specific intent.
◉ General Intent. Answer: Only requires a desire to do the
proscribed act, generally incorporates reckless and neg states of
mind.
,◉ Specific and General Intent Examples. Answer: D is charged with
assault with intent to commit murder, assault is usually only general
intent while intent to murder is a specific intent. Specific intent may
be nullified by an honest but unreasonable mistake of fact, voluntary
intoxication. Only an honest and reasonable mistake of fact will
nullify general intent.
◉ Malice. Answer: Essential mens rea element for murder at
common law.
◉ Express Malice to kill. Answer: D intended to kill another human.
D can act with purpose to kill another, with knowledge her conduct
would kill another, or with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm on
the victim.
◉ Implied Malice to kill. Answer: Where D caused a death as a result
of extreme recklessness or criminal negligence that manifested a
wanton disregard for human life. Killing may be unintentional.
Malice is also implied for felony murder.
◉ Exam Tip for Murder. Answer: Any unlawful killing + malice =
murder, even if D didn't set out to kill someone or didn't even expect
his conduct would cause death.
◉ Strict Liability Crimes. Answer: Only require the act and no mens
rea. i.e. statutory rape.
, ◉ Transferred Intent. Answer: Where D intends to produce a
criminal result against one party but inadvertently harms another.
Intent transfers to the unintended victim, not a defense that D
harmed the wrong person.
◉ Concurrence. Answer: Needed to prove guilt, have to show the
criminal act was set in motion by the requisite criminal state of mind
and that mens rea and criminal act concurred precisely in time. i.e. D
breaks into house to escape rain, sees valuable item and decides to
steal it. Not burglary because breaking and entering was not
actuated by the requisite mens rea- which occurred later.
◉ Legal Cause. Answer: D's conduct must be both the actual and
proximate cause of the specified criminal result. Actual cause +
proximate cause = legal cause.
◉ Actual Cause Tests. Answer: 1. The criminal result would not have
occurred "but for" D's act. 2. If there were multiple causes, D's act
was a "substantial factor" in causing the criminal result. 3. D
"accelerated" an inevitable result. i.e. D1 stabs victim, D2 then
shoots him in the head.
◉ Proximate Cause. Answer: Established when the harm produced
by D was objectively foreseeable.
