Criminal Liability Circumstances

• Criminal liability can be affected by several circumstances. These include: justifying, exempting, mitigating, aggravating, alternative, absolutory, and extenuating circumstances.

Definition of Terms

• Justifying circumstances are acts in accordance with the law, absolving criminal and civil liability except when the person benefited bears civil liability
• Exempting circumstances involve the absence of voluntariness, resulting in no criminal liability, even if a crime occurred
• Alternative circumstances can either aggravate or mitigate depending on the crime's nature, effects, and conditions of commission
• Mitigating circumstances reduce the penalty due to a reduction in the elements of intent or negligence
• Aggravating circumstances increase the penalty without exceeding the maximum legal limit
• An absolutory cause absolves the offender from criminal liability, but not civil liability, often due to public policy or sentiment
• Extenuating circumstances mitigate the criminal liability of the offender

Justifying Circumstances

• Self-defense
• Defense of relatives
• Defense of strangers
• Avoidance of greater evil or injury (state of necessity)
• Fulfillment of duty or lawful exercise of right or office
• Obedience to a lawful superior order

Self-Defense

• The accused must prove they acted in self-defense with clear and convincing evidence
• The defense relies on the strength of the accused's evidence, not the weakness of the prosecution

Elements of Self-Defense

• Unlawful aggression
• Reasonable necessity of the means employed to repel it
• Lack of sufficient provocation on the part of the person defending themselves

Unlawful Aggression

• An essential condition for invoking self-defense
• Necessitates an assault, attack, or threat with immediate and imminent danger
• Exists when there is actual or imminent peril to one's life, limb, or right
• Requires an actual physical assault or the threat to inflict real injury

Actual Danger

• Requires an attack with physical force or a weapon
• Entails an offensive act that clearly indicates the aggressor's intent to cause injury
• The danger must currently exist

Imminent Danger

• Is an attack that is impending
• The threat must not be merely imaginary

Slap on the Face

• It is unlawful aggression
• It is an attack because the face represents a person and their dignity

Retaliation

• Aggression has already ceased when the accused attacks
• In self-defense, aggression still exists when the aggressor is injured or disabled
• The defender no longer has the right to harm the aggressor once unlawful aggression ceases

Fleeing or Retreating

• There is no right to harm a former aggressor if they retreat, as the unlawful aggression no longer exists
• Unlawful aggression continues if the aggressor seeks a better position to persist the initial attack. The defender has the right to injure the aggressor while they are moving to a better position.

Agreement to Fight

• No unlawful aggression arises from an agreement to fight if the challenge is accepted
• Aggression is still considered unlawful if it occurs before the agreed time and place of the fight

Reasonable Necessity of the Means Employed

• Reasonableness depends on the circumstances of the case
• It has two components: a reasonable necessity of the action taken, and a reasonable necessity of the means used

Test of Reasonableness of the Means Used

• Does not require equivalent weapons between the defender and aggressor
• Requires rational equivalence, depending on the weapon's nature, the aggressor's condition, the setting, and other circumstances
• Rational equivalence is judged by the emergency, imminent danger, and instinct
• The means to repel aggression is liberally interpreted for law-abiding citizens
• A peace officer should attempt to overcome the opponent
• Lack of sufficient provocation exists when no provocation is given, the provocation was insufficient, or the defender did not provoke
• Provocation is sufficient in situations like challenging to a fistfight, hurling insults, or attempting to kiss someone forcibly.

Battered Woman Syndrome

• Introduced as a defense by R.A. No. 9262 (Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act of 2004)
• Under Section 26, victim-survivors with the syndrome do not incur criminal and civil liability
• A battered woman experiences repeated forceful physical or psychological behavior by a man
• The couple must experience the battering cycle at least twice for the woman to be classified as battered

Battering Cycle

• Tension-building phase
• Acute battering phase
• Tranquil or loving phase

Tension-Building Phase

• Minor battering occurs, potentially verbal or slightly physical
• The woman tries to pacify the batterer

Acute Battering Phase

• Involves brutality and destructiveness
• The woman has no control, and only the batterer can stop the violence

Tranquil Phase

• The couple experiences profound relief
• The batterer may show care and ask for forgiveness
• The battered woman also tries to convince herself that the battery will never happen and that her partner will change for the better

Self-defense in relation to other crimes

• Killing is too extreme for acts of lasciviousness
• Slander may be a reasonable defense to slander, but not use more force than needed
• Killing is not justified in defense of property. It can be justified if there is a need to save another life.

Defense of Relatives

• The person defending must not have been involved in the provocation by the attacked relative
• Relatives who can be defended include spouses, ascendants, descendants, siblings (legitimate, illegitimate, or adopted), or relatives by affinity/consanguinity within the fourth civil degree

Defense of Strangers

• Strangers are those not included in the enumeration of relatives
• The defense must be driven by a disinterested or generous motive
• The person defending should not be motivated by revenge, resentment, or other evil intentions

Elements of Avoidance of Greater Evil or Injury

• There must be an existing evil
• The potential injury must be greater than the action taken to avoid it
• No other practical and less harmful means to prevent the evil should be available

Avoidance of Greater Evil or Injury (State of Necessity)

• Civil liability is the responsibility of those benefitting from the avoidance of evil

Elements of fulfillment of duty or lawful exercise of right or office

• The accused was performing their duty or exercising their right
• The injurious consequence or committed offense was a necessary result of this performance or exercise

Doctrine of Self-Help

• Owners/lawful possessors can exclude anyone from enjoying/disposing of their property
• Can reasonably use force to repel or prevent actual/threatened physical invasion (Art. 429 of the NCC)

Elements of Obedience to a Lawful Superior Order

• A superior has issued an order
• The order serves a legal purpose
• Methods to carry out the order are lawful

Obedience to a Lawful Superior Order

• Subordinates aren't liable for superiors' illegal orders if unaware of illegality and not negligent