US v de La Cruz Digest

Related Provisions:

US v De la Cruz Mitigating Circumstances – Passion or Obfuscation

Subsection 7, Art. 9 (penal code imposed back then):

Date: 29 March 1912 Ponente: Carson, J.

SUMMARY: Defendant, in the heat of passion, killed his querida (concubine or lover) upon catching her red-handed in the arms of another. Trial court convicted defendant of homicide and sentenced him to 14 years 8 months 1 d ay of reclusion temporal. Supreme Court found extenuating/mitigating extenuating/mitigating circumstances in the commission of the act of homicide therefore reducing defendant s sentence to 12 years 1 day of reclusion temporal. ’

ISSUES: 1. WoN there is an extenuating/mitigating circumstance present - YES FACTS: 1. Defendant (De la Cruz), in the heat of passion, killed his querida when he caught her redhanded in carnal communication with a mutual acquaintance. 2. Trial court found defendant guilty of homicide without any extenuating circumstances present. Defendant was sentenced to 14 years 8 months 1 day of reculsion temporal (medium degree of penalty prescribed by the code). HOLDING: 1. YES. There is an extenuating circumstance present in the case. The Court is of the opinion that the defendant acted upon an impulse so powerful as naturally to have produced passion and obfuscation when he caught his querida in carnal communication with a mutual acquaintance.

The Court mentioned the view taken by the Supreme Court of Spain regarding a case with similar state of facts: A man who kills a woman (his lover) for having caught her in her underclothes with another man and afterwards shoots himself inflicting a serious wound should be responsible for the act but with extenuating circumstance considered because he acted as such due to strong emotion which impelled him to perform the criminal act. The situation presents a sufficient impulse in the natural and ordinary course to produce the violent passion and obfuscation which the law regards as a special reason for extenuation. The Court also differentiated this case from US v Hicks:  In the Hicks case, the cause of the alleged passion and obfuscation of the defendant was his vexation, disappointment, and deliberate anger due to the woman s refusal to live with him. The act of killing was done with premeditation and preparation. Prior to the accomplishment of his criminal design, he acted properly in front of his victim in order to mask his true intentions. In this case, the impulse upon which  defendant acted and which naturally produced passion and obfuscation was because of the sudden revelation that she was untrue to him and his ’

The following are extenuating or mitigating circumstances: circumstances: Xxx That of having acted upon an impulse so powerful as naturally to have produced passion and obfuscation

discovery of her in flagrante in the arms of another. RULING: Modified by the finding that the commission of the crime was marked with the extenuating circumstance set out in subsection 7 of article 9, and by the reduction of the  penalty of fourteen years eight months and one day of reclusion temporal to twelve years and one day of reclusion temporal, the judgment of conviction and the sentence imposed by the trial court should be and are hereby affirmed, with the costs of this instance against the appellant.