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Monday, May 16, 2011

Wrong Solution by Artemio Panganiban





This from the article of Artemio Panganiban in Inquirer. If you want to read the whole column click this.

Our Constitution (Sec. 19, Art. III) prohibits the imposition of the death penalty “unless, for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes, the Congress shall provide for it.” Due to the rise of criminality in the early 1990s, Congress “provided for it” by enacting Republic Act 7659, the Death Penalty Law, which took effect on December 31, 1993.


Take the case of Echegaray, the first convict to be lethally injected. He was charged with rape, which, among others, was qualified as “heinous” by RA 7659 if the offender is the father of the victim. Absent the father-daughter relationship, rape was punishable only with life imprisonment, not death.


The charge sheet or “Information” alleged that Echegaray was the “father” of Rodessa, the victim. However, this father-daughter relationship was not proven. What was proven, to quote the Supreme Court, was that Echegaray was the “confirmed lover (not husband) of Rodessa’s mother.”


With due respect, this reasoning is faulty. A “confirmed lover” of the victim’s mother is not the “father” of the victim; Rodessa’s father was the separated husband of her mother. Further, the Court in many later cases (like People v. Perez, Sept. 24, 1998, People v. Dimapilis, Dec. 17, 1998 and People v. Gallo, Sept. 29, 1999) consistently ruled that the exact relationship between the accused and the victim must be alleged in the information; otherwise, the proper penalty would be reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment.


In Echegaray’s case, however, the wrong sentence of death could no longer be recalled, because he had been lethally injected and could no longer be brought back to life. Indeed, errors in the imposition of the capital penalty are irreversible once an accused is executed.


Source: opinion.inquirer.net

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