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Mitigating Circumstances
Mitigating Circumstances
Mitigating Circumstances are those which, if present in the commission of the crime, do not
entirely free the actor from criminal liability, but serve only to REDUCE the penalty.
Privileged mitigating circumstances applicable only to particular crimes. Art. 268. Art. 333.
Privileged Mitigating produces the effect of imposing upon the offender the penalty
lower by one or two degrees than that provided by law for the crime.
Mitigating circumstances only reduce the penalty, but do not change the nature of the
crime.
Par. 1. Those mentioned in the preceding chapter when all the requisite necessary to justify
the act or to exempt from criminal liability in the respective cases are not attendant.
When two ( 2 ) of the three ( 3 ) requisites of self-defense, defense of relatives and defense of
strange ( unlawful aggression plus one of the other two elements, it should be considered a
privileged mitigating circumstances referred to in Art. 69 of the RPC.
RULES : 1. Offender 15 year old and below is exempt from criminal liability ( R. A. 9344 )
2. Offender if over 15 year old but under 18 year old, the penalty is one degree
lower than that provided by law.
4. There are two cases where the fact that the offender is over 70 years of age has
the effect of a privileged mitigating circumstance, namely : ( 1 ) when he committed n offense
punishable by death, that penalty shall not be imposed ( Art. 47. Par. 1 ) ; and ( 2 ) when death
sentence is already impose, it shall be suspended and commuted ( Art. 83 ). In any of the
above-mentioned two cases, the penalty of death will have to be lowered to life imprisonment
( reclusion perpetua )
PARAGRAPH 3. That the offender had no intention to commit so grave a wrong as that
committed.
3. The weapon used, the part of the body injured, the injury inflicted, and the
manner it is inflicted may show that the accused intended the wrong committed.
4. Art. 13, par. 3, is not applicable when the offender employed brute force.
6. The weapon used, the part of the body injured, the injury inflicted, and the
manner it is inflicted may show that the accused intended the wrong committed.
7. It is the intention of the offender at the moment when he is committing the crime
which is considered.
8. In crimes against persons who do not die as a result of the assault, the absence
of the intent to kill reduces the felony to mere physical injuries, but it does not constitute a
mitigating circumstance under Art. 13, par. 3.
PARAGRAPH 4. That sufficient provocation or threat on the part of the offended party
immediately preceded the act.
RULES ; 1. Provocation is understood any unjust or improper conduct or act of the offended
party, capable of exciting , inciting, or irritating any one.
2. Sufficient means adequate to excite a person to commit the wrong and must
accordingly be proportionate to its gravity
3. When the defendant sought the deceased, the challenge to fight by the latter is
not provocation.
PARAGRAPH 5. That the act was committed in the IMMEDIATE VINDICATION of a grave
offense to the one committing the felony, his spouse, ascendants, descendants, legitimate,
natural or adopted brothers or sisters, or relatives by affinity within the same degrees.
3. A personal offense is grave must be decided by the court, having in mind the
social standing of the person, place, and the time when the crime was committed.
RULES : 1. He loses his reason and self-control, thereby diminishing the exercise of his will
power.
8. The cause producing passion or obfuscation must come from the offended
party.
9. Provocation and obfuscation arising from one and the same cause should be
treated as only one mitigating circumstance.
PARAGRAPH 7. That the offender had voluntarily surrendered himself to a person in authority
or his agent, or that he had voluntarily confessed his guilt before the court prior to the
presentation of the evidence for the prosecution.
2. The accused who ran to the municipal building after the commission of the
crime had the intention or desire to surrender.
3. The accused who fled and hid himself to avoid reprisals from the companions
of the deceased, but upon meeting a policeman voluntarily went with him to the jail, is entitled to
the benefit of the mitigating circumstance of voluntary surrender.
4. When the accused surrendered only after the warrant of arrest had been
served upon him, it is not mitigating.
5. When the warrant of arrest had not been served or not returned unserved
because the accused cannot be located, the surrender is mitigating.
6. Where the accused merely surrendered the gun used in the killing, without
surrendering his own person to the authorities, such act of the accused does not constitute
voluntary surrender.
7. The surrender must be by reason of the commission of the crime for which
defendant is prosecuted
12. When the offender imposed a condition or acted with external stimulus, his
surrender is not voluntary.
PLEA OF GUILTY :
7. Plea of guilty to the offense charged in the amended information, lesser than
that charged in the original information, is mitigating.
8. When the accused is charged with a grave offense, the court should take his
testimony in spite of his plea of guilty.
10. Plea of guilty is not mitigating in culpable felonies and in crimes punished by
special laws.
PARAGRAPH 8. That the offender is deaf and dumb, blind or otherwise suffering from some
physical defect which thus restricts his means of action , defense, or communication with his
fellow beings.
PARAGRAPH 9. Such illness of the offender as would diminish the exercise of the will-power
of the offender without however depriving him of consciousness of his acts.
When the offender completely lost the exercise of will-power, it may be an exempting
circumstance.
Basis : Diminution of intelligence and intent.
PARAGRAPH 10. And, finally, any other circumstance of a similar nature and analogous to
those above-mentioned.
RULES : 1. Over 60 years old with failing sight, similar to over 70 years of age mentioned
in paragraph 2.
1. Mistake IN THE BLOW OR ABERRATIO ICTUS, for under Art. 48, there is a complex
crime committed.
2. Mistake in the identity of the victim, for under Art. 4, par. 1
3. Entrapment.