Criminal Law Book 1 Reviewer

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Criminal Law Reviewer

Criminal Law Book 1 Reviewer

Definition of Terms

Abberatio Ictus – mistake in blow.

       What is the legal effect of aberratio ictus?

       a. may result in complex crime or two felonies

       b. if complex, apply Art. 48 - penalty for the more or most serious

           crime in its maximum period.

Absolutory Causes - where the act committed is a crime but for some

reason of public policy and sentiment, there is no penalty imposed.

Exempting and justifying circumstances are absolutory causes.

      Related: Full Reference Material in Criminal Law

Accomplices - Persons who do not act as principals but cooperate in

the execution of the offense by previous and simultaneous acts,

which are not indispensable to the commission of the crime. They act as

mere instruments that perform acts not essential to the perpetration

of the offense.

Act – an overt or external act. Any bodily movement tending to produce

some effect in the external world.

Actus Me Invito Factus Non Est Meus Actus – Any act done by me against

my will is not my act.

Agent - subordinate public officer charged w/ the maintenance of public

order and protection and security of life and property.

Aggravating Circumstances - Those which, if attendant in the commission

of the crime, serve to have the penalty imposed in its maximum period

provided by law for the offense or those that change the nature of

the crime.

      Generic - those which apply to all crimes.

      Specific - those which apply only to specific crimes.

      Qualifying - those that change the nature of the crime.

      Inherent - which of necessity accompany the commission of the crime,

                 therefore not considered in increasing the penalty to be

                 imposed.

      Special - those which arise under special conditions to increase

                the penalty of the offense and cannot be offset by

                mitigating circumstances.
Alternative Circumstances – Those which must be taken into consideration

as aggravating or mitigating according to the nature and effects of

the crime and the other conditions attending its commission.

Amnesty – is an act of the sovereign power granting oblivion or general

pardon. It wipes all traces and vestiges of the crime but does not

extinguish civil liability.

Astucia – (Craft) involved the use of intellectual trickery or cunning

on the part of the accused. A chicanery resorted to by the accused to

aid in the execution of his criminal design. It is employed as a

scheme in the execution of the crime.

Bill Of Attainder – A legislative act which inflicts punishment

without trial.

Characteristics of Criminal Law

1. General

2. Territorial

3. Prospective

Circumstances That Affect Criminal Liability

1. Justifying circumstances

2. Exempting circumstances

3. Mitigating circumstances

4. Aggravating circumstances

5. Alternative circumstances

Commutation – change in the decision of the court by the chief regarding

the degree of the penalty by decreasing the length of the imprisonment

or fine.

Consummated Felonies - when all the elements necessary for its execution
and accomplishment are present.

Continued Crime – refers to a single crime consisting of a series of

acts but all arising from one criminal resolution. Although there is

a series of acts, there is only one crime committed, so only one

penalty shall be imposed.

Crime – acts and omissions punishable by any law.

Criminal law - A branch of municipal law which defines crimes, treats

of their nature and provides for their punishment.

      The Following are not subject to the operation of Philippine

      Criminal Law

      1. Sovereigns and other heads of state

      2. Charges d'affaires

      3. Ambassadors

      4. Ministers plenipotentiary

      5. Ministers resident

Cruelty – there is cruelty when the culprit enjoys and delights in

making his victim suffer slowly and gradually, causing unnecessary

physical pain in the consummation of the criminal act.

Degree – one whole penalty, one entire penalty or one unit of the

penalties enumerated in the graduated scales provided for in Art. 71

Despoblado – (Uninhabited Place) one where there are no houses at all,

a place at a considerable distance from town, where the houses are

scattered at a great distance from each other.

Discernment - mental capacity to fully appreciate he consequences of

the unlawful act, which is shown by the manner the crime was committed

and conduct of the offender after its commission.

Disfraz (Disguise) – resorting to any device to conceal identity.

Duress -  use of violence or physical force.

Dwelling - must be a building or structure exclusively used for rest

and comfort (combination of house and store not included), may be

temporary as in the case of guests in a house or bedspacers. It

includes dependencies, the foot of the staircase and the enclosure

under the house.

El que es causa de la causa es causa del mal causado - Spanish maxim

which means: "He who is the cause of the cause is the cause of the

evil caused.

En Cuadrilla – (Band) whenever there are more than 3 armed malefactors

that shall have acted together in the commission of an offense.

Entrapment - ways and means are resorted to for the purpose of trapping

and capturing the lawbreaker in the execution of his criminal plan.

Error in personae – mistake in identity.

       What is the legal effect of error in personae?

       a. if same crime results, liable for the same crime

       b. if different crime results, apply Art. 49 - penalty for lesser

           crime in its maximum period

Exempting Circumstances - grounds for exemption from punishment

because there is wanting in the agent of the crime any of the conditions

which make the act voluntary or negligent.

Ex Post Facto Law - An act which when committed was not a crime,

cannot be made so by statute without violating the constitutional

inhibition as to ex post facto laws.

Felonies – acts and omissions punishable by the Revised Penal Code.

Fence – is a person who commits the act of fencing. A fence who

receives stolen property as above- provided is not an accessory but

a principal in the crime defined in and punished by the Anti-Fencing

Law.

Fencing – is an act, with intent to gain, of buying, selling, receiving,

possessing, keeping, or in any other manner dealing in anything of

value which a person knows or should have known to be derived from the

proceeds of the crime of robbery or theft.

Fraud (fraude) – insidious words or machinations used to induce the

victim to act in a manner which would enable the offender to carry

out his design.

Good conduct allowance during confinement – Deduction for the term of

sentence for good behavior.

Habitual Delinquency or Multi-recidivism – Where a person within a

period of ten years from the date of his release or last conviction

of the crimes of serious or less serious physical injuries, robbery,

theft, estafa or falsification, is found guilty of the said crimes a

third time or oftener. This is an extraordinary aggravating

circumstance.

Habitual Delinquent - A person who, within a period of ten years

from the date of his release or last conviction of the crimes of

serious or less serious physical injuries, robbery, theft, estafa,

or falsification, is found guilty of any said crimes a third time or

oftener.

Ignominy – is a circumstance pertaining to the moral order, which

adds disgrace and obloquy to the material injury caused by the crime.

Imbecile - one while advanced in age has a mental development comparable

to that of children between 2 and 7 years old. He is exempt in all

cases from criminal liability.

Insane - one who acts with complete deprivation of intelligence/reason

or without the least discernment or with total deprivation of freedom

of will. Mere abnormality of the mental faculties will not exclude

imputability.

Instigation - Instigator practically induces the would-be accused into

the commission of the offense and himself becomes a co-principal.

Insuperable Clause - some motive, which has lawfully, morally or

physically prevented a person to do what the law commands.

Irresistible Force - offender uses violence or physical force to

compel another person to commit a crime.

Justifying Circumstances -  where the act of a person is in accordance

with law such that said person is deemed not to have violated the law.

Mala In Se - acts or omissions that are inherently evil.

Mala Prohibita - acts made evil because there is a law prohibiting it.

Misdemeanor - a minor infraction of law.

Mistake of Fact - misapprehension of fact on the part of the person

who caused injury to another. He is not criminally liable.

Mitigating Circumstances - those which if present in the commission

of the crime reduces the penalty of the crime but does not erase

criminal liability nor change the nature of the crime.

Motive - it is the moving power which impels one to action for a

definite result.

Nullum Crimen, Nulla Poena Sine Lege – There is no crime when there is

no law punishing it.

Obscuridad – (Night time) that period of darkness beginning at the end

of dusk and ending at dawn.

Offense - a crime punished under special law.

Omission – failure to perform a duty required by law.

Pardon – an act of grace proceeding from the power entrusted with the

execution of laws, which exempts the individual from the punishment

the law inflicts for the crime.

Parole – consists in the suspension of the sentence of a convict after

serving the minimum term of the indeterminate penalty, without granting

pardon, prescribing the terms upon which the sentence shall be

suspended. In case his parole conditions are not observed, a convict

may be returned to the custody and continue to serve his sentence

without deducting the time that elapsed.

Penalty – suffering inflicted by the State for the transgression

of a law.

Period – one of 3 equal portions, min/med/max of a divisible penalty.

A period of a divisible penalty when prescribed by the Code as a

penalty for a felony, is in itself a degree.

Person In Authority - public authority, or person who is directly

vested with jurisdiction and has the power to govern and execute

the laws.

Plurality Of Crimes – consists in the successive execution by the same

individual of different criminal acts upon any of which no

conviction has yet been declared.

Praetor Intentionem - lack of intent to commit so grave a wrong.

      What is the legal effect of praeter intentionem?

      - a mitigating circumstance (Art. 13, par. 3)

Prescription Of A Crime – is the loss/forfeiture of the right of the

state to prosecute the offender after the lapse of a certain time.

Prescription Of Penalty - means the loss/forfeiture of the right of

government to execute the final sentence after the lapse of a

certain time.

Probation - a disposition under which a defendant after conviction and

sentence is released subject to conditions imposed by the court and to

the supervision of a probation officer.

Pro Reo -  whenever a penal law is to be construed or applied and the

law admits of two interpretations, one lenient to the offender and one

strict to the offender, that interpretation which is lenient or favorable

to the offender will be adopted.

Proximate Cause - the cause, which in the natural and continuous

sequence unbroken by any efficient intervening cause, produces the

injury, without which the result would not have occurred.

Quasi-Recidivism – Where a person commits felony before beginning to

serve or while serving sentence on a previous conviction for a

felony. This is a special aggravating circumstance.

RA 75 -  This law penalizes acts which would impair the proper

observance by the Republic and its inhabitants of the immunities, rights,

and privileges of duly-accredited foreign diplomatic representatives

in the Philippines.

Rank - The designation or title of distinction used to fix the

relative position of the offended party in reference to others

(There must be a difference in the social condition of the offender

and the offended party).

Recidivism – Where a person, on separate occasions, is convicted of

two offenses embraced in the same title in the RPC. This is a

generic aggravating circumstance.

Recidivist – one who at the time of his trial for one crime, shall

have been previously convicted by final judgment of another crime

embraced in the same title of the RPC.

Reiteracion or Habituality – Where the offender has been previously

punished for an offense to which the law attaches an equal or greater

penalty or for two crimes to which it attaches a lighter penalty.

This is a generic aggravating circumstance.

Requisites of Dolo or Malice 

1. Freedom

2. Intelligence

3. Intent

Requisites of Culpa

1. Freedom

2. Intelligence

3. Negligence, Imprudence, Lack of Foresight, Lack of Skill

      Negligence - it indicates a deficiency of perception; failure to pay

      proper attention and to use diligence in foreseeing the injury or

      damage impending to be caused; usually involves lack of foresight.

      Imprudence -  it indicates a deficiency of action; failure to take the

      necessary precaution to avoid injury to person or damage to property;

      usually involves lack of skill.

Rules on jurisdiction over private or merchant vessels while in the 

territory of another country

1. French Rule

2. English Rule

Stand Ground When in The Right - the law does not require a person

to retreat when his assailant is rapidly advancing upon him with a

deadly weapon.

Stages In The Execution Of A Crime

1. Attempted Stage -  a stage in the execution of a crime where the offender

    commences commission of a felony directly by over acts, and does

    NOT perform all acts of execution which should produce the felony

    by reason of some cause or accident other his spontaneous desistance.

2. Frustrated Stage - a stage in the execution of a crime where the offender
    performs all the acts of execution which would produce the felony

    as a consequence but which, nevertheless, do not produce it due to

    some cause independent of the will of the perpetrator.

3. Consummated Stage -  a stage in the execution of a crime where all

    the elements necessary for its execution and accomplishment

    are present.

Treachery – when the offender commits any of the crimes against the

person, employing means, methods or forms in the execution thereof

which tend directly and specially to insure its execution without

risk to himself arising from the defense which the offended party

might make.

Uncontrollable Fear -  offender employs intimidation or threat in

compelling another to commit a crime.

Unlawful Entry - when an entrance is effected by a way not intended

for the purpose.

Youthful offender – over 9 but under 18 at time of the commission

of the offense.