Leo Echegaray

11 July 1960 5 February 1999

THE FACTS
RAPED HIS 10 year old stepdaughter Rodessa in April
1994
Sentenced to death by the Supreme Court on June 25,
1996
Was about to be executed on January 4, 1999 but filed a
motion for reconsideration
Motion for Reconsideration was denied January 19, 1999
Finally executed on February 5, 1999
ECHEGARAY vs. SEC. OF JUSTICE (Jan.
19, 1999)
PUNO:
In 1922, the famous Clarence Darrow
predicted that ". . . the question of capital
punishment had been the subject of
endless discussion and will probably never
be settled so long as men believe in
punishment."
CONTINUED
...capital punishment has been regrettably blurred
by emotionalism because of the unfaltering faith
of the pro and anti-death partisans on the right and
righteousness of their postulates... when the
debate deteriorates to discord due to the
overuse of words that wound, when anger
threatens to turn the majority rule to tyranny, it is
the especial duty of this Court to assure that the
guarantees of the Bill of Rights to the minority fully
hold.