TEXAS PENAL CODE UPDATED EXAM SCRIPT QUESTIONS
AND SOLUTIONS GRADED A+
✔✔Harm - ✔✔Anything reasonably regarded as loss, disadvantage, or injury, including
harm to another person in whose welfare the person affected is interested.
✔✔Individual - ✔✔A human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage
of gestation from fertilization until birth.
✔✔Misdemeanor - ✔✔An offense so designated by law or punishable by fine, by
confinement in jail, or by both fine and confinement in jail.
✔✔Possession - ✔✔Means actual care, custody, control, or management.
✔✔Public Place - ✔✔Any place to which the public or a substantial group of the public
has access and includes, but is not limited to, streets, highways, and the common areas
of schools, hospitals, apartment houses, office buildings, transport facilities, and shops.
✔✔Public Servant - ✔✔A person elected, selected, appointed, employed, or otherwise
designated as one of the following, even if he has not yet qualified for office or assumed
his duties:
(A) an officer, employee, or agent of government;
(B) a juror or grand juror; or
(C) an arbitrator, referee, or other person who is authorized by law or private written
agreement to hear or determine a cause or controversy; or
(D) an attorney at law or notary public when participating in the performance of a
governmental function; or
(E) a candidate for nomination or election to public office; or
(F) a person who is performing a governmental function under a claim of right although
he is not legally qualified to do so.
✔✔Reasonable Belief - ✔✔A belief that would be held by an ordinary and prudent man
in the same circumstances as the actor.
✔✔Secure Correctional Facility - ✔✔A municipal or county jail; or
(B) a confinement facility operated by or under a contract with any division of the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice.
✔✔Unlawful - ✔✔Criminal or tortuous or both and includes what would be criminal or
tortuous but for a defense not amounting to justification or privilege.
✔✔Death - ✔✔For an individual who is an unborn child, the failure to be born alive.
✔✔Prosecuting Attorney - ✔✔Prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant or
defendant's conduct does not fall within the exception.
,✔✔Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt - ✔✔All persons are presumed to be innocent
and no person may be convicted of an offense unless each element of the offense is
proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
✔✔Presumption - ✔✔If there is sufficient evidence of the facts that give rise to the
presumption, the issue of the existence of the presumed fact must be submitted to the
jury
✔✔Defense - ✔✔-"It is a defense to prosecution..."
-REASONABLE DOUBT
-Easier to prove
✔✔Affirmative Defense - ✔✔-"It is an Affirmative Defense to Prosecution..."
-Prosecuting attorney not required to negate existence.
-Proved by PREPONDERANCE OF EVIDENCE
-Harder to prove
✔✔Criminal Episode - ✔✔The commission of 2 or more offenses, regardless of whether
the harm is directed toward or inflicted upon more than one person or item. Common
scheme/Similar offenses.
✔✔Requirement of Voluntary Act or Omission - ✔✔A person commits an offense only if
he voluntarily engages in conduct, including an act, an omission, or possession.
(b) Possession is a voluntary act if the possessor knowingly obtains or receives the
thing possessed or is aware of his control of the thing for a sufficient time to permit him
to terminate his control.
✔✔Requirement of Culpability - ✔✔A person does not commit an offense unless he
intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence engages in conduct as
the definition of the offense requires. municipal ordinance or by order of a county
commissioners court may not dispense with the requirement of a culpable mental state
✔✔Culpable Mental States - ✔✔1) Intentionally
2) Knowingly
3) Recklessly
4) Criminal Neglience
✔✔Intentionally - ✔✔With intent, with respect to the nature of his conduct or to a result
of his conduct when it is his conscious objective or desire to engage in the conduct or
cause the result.
✔✔Knowingly - ✔✔With knowledge, with respect to the nature of his conduct or to
circumstances surrounding his conduct when he is aware of the nature of his conduct or
that the circumstances exist.
,✔✔Recklessly - ✔✔Is reckless, with respect to circumstances surrounding his conduct
or the result of his conduct when he is aware of but consciously disregards a substantial
and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur.
✔✔Criminal Negligence - ✔✔He OUGHT to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable
risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur. Failure to perceive/Gross
deviation from standard of care/ordinary person.
✔✔Parties to Offenses - ✔✔-Criminally responsible as party to offense if committed by
self, person criminally responsible to or both.
-Each party may be charged with offense.
-Traditional distinction of accomplices are abolished by this section, and all may be
charged with same crime.
✔✔Defenses to Criminal Responsibility - ✔✔8.01 Insanity
8.02 Mistake of Fact
8.03 Mistake of Law
8.04 Intoxication
8.05 Duress
8.06 Entrapment
8.07 Age affecting criminal responsibility
8.08 Child with Mental Illness, Disability, or Lack of Capacity
✔✔Insanity - ✔✔Affirmative defense to prosecution that, at the time of the conduct
charged, the actor, as a result of severe mental disease or defect, did not know that his
conduct was wrong.
✔✔Mistake of Fact - ✔✔Defense to prosecution that the actor through mistake formed a
reasonable belief about a matter of fact if his mistaken belief negated the kind of
culpability required for commission of the offense.
✔✔Mistake of Law - ✔✔No defense to prosecution that the actor was ignorant of the
provisions of any law after the law has taken effect
✔✔Voluntary Intoxication - ✔✔Does not constitute a defense to the commission of
crime.
✔✔Duress - ✔✔It is an affirmative defense to prosecution that the actor engaged in the
proscribed conduct because he was compelled to do so by threat of imminent DEATH
or SERIOUS bodily injury.
-IF for offense that does NOT constitute a felony, affirmative defense actor engaged
because compelled by Force or Threat of Force.
-Defense is unavailable if actor Intentionally, knowingly, recklessly place self in situation
that compulsion was probable.
, -NO DEFENSE if acted on command or persuasion of spouse unless compulsion
established as above.
✔✔Entrapment - ✔✔He was induced to do so by a law enforcement agent using
persuasion or other means likely to cause persons to commit the offense.
✔✔Age Affecting Criminal Responsibility - ✔✔A person may not be prosecuted for or
convicted of any offense that the person committed when younger than 15 years of age
EXCEPT:
(1) perjury and aggravated perjury when it appears by proof that the person had
sufficient discretion to understand the nature and obligation of an oath. a person may
not be prosecuted for or convicted of any offense committed before reaching 17 years
of age
✔✔Class A Misdemeanor (Highest) - ✔✔A fine not to exceed $4,000;
(2) confinement in jail for a term not to exceed one year; or
(3) both such fine and confinement.
✔✔Class B Misdemeanor - ✔✔A fine not to exceed $2,000;
(2) confinement in jail for a term not to exceed 180 days; or
(3) both such fine and confinement.
✔✔Class C Misdemeanor (Lowest) - ✔✔A fine not to exceed $500.
✔✔Capital Felony - ✔✔-Texas Department of Criminal Justice for life without parole or
by death.
-A case in which the state does not seek the death penalty shall be punished by
imprisonment in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for:
1) Life, if the individual committed the offense when younger than 18 years of age; or
2) Life without the possibility of parole, if the individual committed the offense when 18
years of age or older
✔✔First Degree Felony - ✔✔-Punished by imprisonment in the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice for life or for any term of not more than 99 years or less than 5 years
-A fine not to exceed $10,000.
✔✔Second Degree Felony - ✔✔-Punished by imprisonment in the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice for any term of not more than 20 years or less than 2 years.
-Punished by a fine not to exceed $10,000.
✔✔Third Degree Felony - ✔✔-Punished by imprisonment in the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice for any term of not more than 10 years or less than 2 years.
-A fine not to exceed $10,000.
AND SOLUTIONS GRADED A+
✔✔Harm - ✔✔Anything reasonably regarded as loss, disadvantage, or injury, including
harm to another person in whose welfare the person affected is interested.
✔✔Individual - ✔✔A human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage
of gestation from fertilization until birth.
✔✔Misdemeanor - ✔✔An offense so designated by law or punishable by fine, by
confinement in jail, or by both fine and confinement in jail.
✔✔Possession - ✔✔Means actual care, custody, control, or management.
✔✔Public Place - ✔✔Any place to which the public or a substantial group of the public
has access and includes, but is not limited to, streets, highways, and the common areas
of schools, hospitals, apartment houses, office buildings, transport facilities, and shops.
✔✔Public Servant - ✔✔A person elected, selected, appointed, employed, or otherwise
designated as one of the following, even if he has not yet qualified for office or assumed
his duties:
(A) an officer, employee, or agent of government;
(B) a juror or grand juror; or
(C) an arbitrator, referee, or other person who is authorized by law or private written
agreement to hear or determine a cause or controversy; or
(D) an attorney at law or notary public when participating in the performance of a
governmental function; or
(E) a candidate for nomination or election to public office; or
(F) a person who is performing a governmental function under a claim of right although
he is not legally qualified to do so.
✔✔Reasonable Belief - ✔✔A belief that would be held by an ordinary and prudent man
in the same circumstances as the actor.
✔✔Secure Correctional Facility - ✔✔A municipal or county jail; or
(B) a confinement facility operated by or under a contract with any division of the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice.
✔✔Unlawful - ✔✔Criminal or tortuous or both and includes what would be criminal or
tortuous but for a defense not amounting to justification or privilege.
✔✔Death - ✔✔For an individual who is an unborn child, the failure to be born alive.
✔✔Prosecuting Attorney - ✔✔Prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant or
defendant's conduct does not fall within the exception.
,✔✔Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt - ✔✔All persons are presumed to be innocent
and no person may be convicted of an offense unless each element of the offense is
proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
✔✔Presumption - ✔✔If there is sufficient evidence of the facts that give rise to the
presumption, the issue of the existence of the presumed fact must be submitted to the
jury
✔✔Defense - ✔✔-"It is a defense to prosecution..."
-REASONABLE DOUBT
-Easier to prove
✔✔Affirmative Defense - ✔✔-"It is an Affirmative Defense to Prosecution..."
-Prosecuting attorney not required to negate existence.
-Proved by PREPONDERANCE OF EVIDENCE
-Harder to prove
✔✔Criminal Episode - ✔✔The commission of 2 or more offenses, regardless of whether
the harm is directed toward or inflicted upon more than one person or item. Common
scheme/Similar offenses.
✔✔Requirement of Voluntary Act or Omission - ✔✔A person commits an offense only if
he voluntarily engages in conduct, including an act, an omission, or possession.
(b) Possession is a voluntary act if the possessor knowingly obtains or receives the
thing possessed or is aware of his control of the thing for a sufficient time to permit him
to terminate his control.
✔✔Requirement of Culpability - ✔✔A person does not commit an offense unless he
intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence engages in conduct as
the definition of the offense requires. municipal ordinance or by order of a county
commissioners court may not dispense with the requirement of a culpable mental state
✔✔Culpable Mental States - ✔✔1) Intentionally
2) Knowingly
3) Recklessly
4) Criminal Neglience
✔✔Intentionally - ✔✔With intent, with respect to the nature of his conduct or to a result
of his conduct when it is his conscious objective or desire to engage in the conduct or
cause the result.
✔✔Knowingly - ✔✔With knowledge, with respect to the nature of his conduct or to
circumstances surrounding his conduct when he is aware of the nature of his conduct or
that the circumstances exist.
,✔✔Recklessly - ✔✔Is reckless, with respect to circumstances surrounding his conduct
or the result of his conduct when he is aware of but consciously disregards a substantial
and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur.
✔✔Criminal Negligence - ✔✔He OUGHT to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable
risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur. Failure to perceive/Gross
deviation from standard of care/ordinary person.
✔✔Parties to Offenses - ✔✔-Criminally responsible as party to offense if committed by
self, person criminally responsible to or both.
-Each party may be charged with offense.
-Traditional distinction of accomplices are abolished by this section, and all may be
charged with same crime.
✔✔Defenses to Criminal Responsibility - ✔✔8.01 Insanity
8.02 Mistake of Fact
8.03 Mistake of Law
8.04 Intoxication
8.05 Duress
8.06 Entrapment
8.07 Age affecting criminal responsibility
8.08 Child with Mental Illness, Disability, or Lack of Capacity
✔✔Insanity - ✔✔Affirmative defense to prosecution that, at the time of the conduct
charged, the actor, as a result of severe mental disease or defect, did not know that his
conduct was wrong.
✔✔Mistake of Fact - ✔✔Defense to prosecution that the actor through mistake formed a
reasonable belief about a matter of fact if his mistaken belief negated the kind of
culpability required for commission of the offense.
✔✔Mistake of Law - ✔✔No defense to prosecution that the actor was ignorant of the
provisions of any law after the law has taken effect
✔✔Voluntary Intoxication - ✔✔Does not constitute a defense to the commission of
crime.
✔✔Duress - ✔✔It is an affirmative defense to prosecution that the actor engaged in the
proscribed conduct because he was compelled to do so by threat of imminent DEATH
or SERIOUS bodily injury.
-IF for offense that does NOT constitute a felony, affirmative defense actor engaged
because compelled by Force or Threat of Force.
-Defense is unavailable if actor Intentionally, knowingly, recklessly place self in situation
that compulsion was probable.
, -NO DEFENSE if acted on command or persuasion of spouse unless compulsion
established as above.
✔✔Entrapment - ✔✔He was induced to do so by a law enforcement agent using
persuasion or other means likely to cause persons to commit the offense.
✔✔Age Affecting Criminal Responsibility - ✔✔A person may not be prosecuted for or
convicted of any offense that the person committed when younger than 15 years of age
EXCEPT:
(1) perjury and aggravated perjury when it appears by proof that the person had
sufficient discretion to understand the nature and obligation of an oath. a person may
not be prosecuted for or convicted of any offense committed before reaching 17 years
of age
✔✔Class A Misdemeanor (Highest) - ✔✔A fine not to exceed $4,000;
(2) confinement in jail for a term not to exceed one year; or
(3) both such fine and confinement.
✔✔Class B Misdemeanor - ✔✔A fine not to exceed $2,000;
(2) confinement in jail for a term not to exceed 180 days; or
(3) both such fine and confinement.
✔✔Class C Misdemeanor (Lowest) - ✔✔A fine not to exceed $500.
✔✔Capital Felony - ✔✔-Texas Department of Criminal Justice for life without parole or
by death.
-A case in which the state does not seek the death penalty shall be punished by
imprisonment in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for:
1) Life, if the individual committed the offense when younger than 18 years of age; or
2) Life without the possibility of parole, if the individual committed the offense when 18
years of age or older
✔✔First Degree Felony - ✔✔-Punished by imprisonment in the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice for life or for any term of not more than 99 years or less than 5 years
-A fine not to exceed $10,000.
✔✔Second Degree Felony - ✔✔-Punished by imprisonment in the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice for any term of not more than 20 years or less than 2 years.
-Punished by a fine not to exceed $10,000.
✔✔Third Degree Felony - ✔✔-Punished by imprisonment in the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice for any term of not more than 10 years or less than 2 years.
-A fine not to exceed $10,000.
