Texas Penal Code Exam Questions and Answers Latest 2024/2025 (Verified)

Texas Penal Code Exam Questions and Answers Latest 2024/2025 (Verified) Objectives of Code - ANSWER -To insure the public safety through: (A) the deterrent influence of the penalties hereinafter provided; (B) the rehabilitation of those convicted of violations of this code; and to guide and limit the exercise of official discretion in law enforcement to prevent arbitrary or oppressive treatment of persons suspected, accused, or convicted of offenses; and (6) to define the scope of state interest in law enforcement against specific offenses and to systematize the exercise of state criminal jurisdiction. Territorial Jurisdiction - ANSWER Either the conduct or a result that is an element of the offense occurs inside this state Computation of Age - ANSWER A person attains a specified age on the day of the anniversary of his birth-date. Act - ANSWER A bodily movement, whether voluntary or involuntary, and includes speech. Actor - ANSWER A person whose criminal responsibility is in issue in a criminal action. Whenever the term "suspect" is used in this code, it means "actor." Agency - ANSWER Includes authority, board, bureau, commission, committee, council, department, district, division, and office. Bodily Injury - ANSWER Means physical pain, illness, or any impairment of physical condition. Serious Bodily Injury - ANSWER Bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death or that causes death, serious permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of Texas Penal Code Exam Questions and Answers Latest 2024/2025 (Verified) the function of any bodily member or organ. Coercion - ANSWER Means a threat, however communicated: (A) to commit an offense; (B) to inflict bodily injury in the future on the person threatened or another; (C) to accuse a person of any offense; (D) to expose a person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule; (E) to harm the credit or business repute of any person; or (F) to take or withhold action as a public servant, or to cause a public servant to take or withhold action. Conduct - ANSWER Means an act or omission and its accompanying mental state. Correctional Facility - ANSWER Means a place designated by law for the confinement of a person arrested for, charged with, or convicted of a criminal offense. The term includes: (A) a municipal or county jail; (B) a confinement facility operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice; (C) a confinement facility operated under contract with any division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice; and (D) a community corrections facility operated by a community supervision and corrections department. Deadly Weapon - ANSWER A firearm or anything manifestly designed, made, or adapted for the purpose of inflicting death or serious bodily injury; or (B) anything that in the manner of its use or intended use is capable of causing death or serious bodily injury. Consent - ANSWER Means assent in fact, whether express or apparent. Effective Consent - ANSWER Includes consent by a person legally authorized to act for the owner. Consent is not effective if: (A) induced by force, threat, or fraud; (B) given by a person the actor knows is not legally authorized to act for the owner; (C) given by a person who by reason of youth, mental disease or defect, or intoxication is known by the actor to be unable to make reasonable decisions; or (D) given solely to detect the commission of an offense. Element of Offense - ANSWER (A) The forbidden conduct; (B) The required culpability; (C) Any required result; and (D) The negation of any exception to the offense. Felony - ANSWER An offense so designated by law or punishable by death or confinement in a penitentiary. Harm - ANSWER Anything reasonably regarded as loss, disadvantage, or injury, including harm to another person in whose welfare the person affected is interested. Individual - ANSWER A human being who is alive, including an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization until birth. Misdemeanor - ANSWER An offense so designated by law or punishable by fine, by confinement in jail, or by both fine and confinement in jail. Possession - ANSWER Means actual care, custody, control, or management. Public Place - ANSWER 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 - ANSWER 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 - ANSWER A belief that would be held by an ordinary and prudent man in the same circumstances as the actor. Secure Correctional Facility - ANSWER 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 - ANSWER Criminal or tortuous or both and includes what would be criminal or tortuous but for a defense not amounting to justification or privilege. Death - ANSWER For an individual who is an unborn child, the failure to be born alive. Prosecuting Attorney - ANSWER Prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant or defendant's conduct does not fall within the exception. Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt - ANSWER 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 - ANSWER 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 - ANSWER -"It is a defense to prosecution..." -REASONABLE DOUBT -Easier to prove Affirmative Defense - ANSWER -"It is an Affirmative Defense to Prosecution..." -Prosecuting attorney not required to negate existence. -Proved by PREPONDERANCE OF EVIDENCE -Harder to prove Criminal Episode - ANSWER 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 - ANSWER 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 - ANSWER 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 - ANSWER 1) Intentionally 2) Knowingly 3) Recklessly 4) Criminal Neglience Intentionally - ANSWER 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 - ANSWER 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 - ANSWER 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 - ANSWER 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 - ANSWER -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 - ANSWER 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 - ANSWER 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 - ANSWER 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 - ANSWER No defense to prosecution that the actor was ignorant of the provisions of any law after the law has taken effect Voluntary Intoxication - ANSWER Does not constitute a defense to the commission of crime. Duress - ANSWER 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.