EXEMPTING CIRCUMSTANCES | ARTICLE 12 ( TAGALOG DISCUSSION)

EXEMPTING CIRCUMSTANCES ARTICLE 12 OF THE REVISED PENAL CODE BOOK 1

Those wherein there is absent in the agent of the crime any of the conditions that would make an act voluntary , or negligent.

One who acts by virtue of any of the exempting circumstances commits a crime, but because of the absence of the conditions which constitute free will or voluntariness of the act, no criminal liability arises. There is however, civil liability.

EXEMPTING CIRCUMSTANCES:The following are exempt from criminal liability:

1) An imbecile or an insane person, unless the latter has acted during a lucid interval;

2) A person under 9 years of age;

3) A person under 9 years old and under 15 (RA 9344);

4.) Any person over 15 and under 18 years old, unless he acted with discernment (RA 9344);

5.) Any person who while performing a lawful act with due care, causes an injury by mere accident without fault or intention of causing it;

6.) Any person who acts under the compulsion of an irresistible force;

7.) Any person who acts under the impulse of an uncontrollable fear of an equal or greater injury;

8.) Any person who fails to perform an act required by law, when prevented by some lawful or insuperable cause.

INSANITY - exists when there is complete deprivation of intelligence. Mere abnormality of the mental faculties will not exclude imputability.

IMBECILITY – exists when a person of advanced age has the mental development comparable to that of a child between 2 and 7 years of age.

An insane person is not exempt if it can be shown that he acted during a lucid interval. But an imbecile is exempt in all cases from criminal liability.

INSANITY...

At the time of his trial for homicide, A was insane as shown by the report of a doctor of the National Mental Hospital. Must the court declare A exempt from criminal liability?No, because the mental condition of the accused at the time of his trial does not in any way affect his criminal liability. It is the mental condition of the accused at the time of the commission of the crime which the court has to consider for the purpose of determining his criminal liability.If he was insane at the time of the commission of the crime, he should be acquitted regardless of the condition of his mind at the time of his trial.If he is insane at the time of his trial so that even with the assistance of counsel, he may not have a fair trial, the court can only suspend the trial and commit him to the National Mental Hospital until he shall have regained his reason.

SOMNAMBOLISMCommonly known as sleep-walking. It is embraced in a plea of insanity.

DEMENTIA PRAECOXIt is mental illness otherwise known as schizophrenia. When a person becomes affected by this kind of mental illness, he has no control whatever of his acts, during the period of excitement.It may be considered as embraced in the term “insanity”, because the person affected has completely lost the exercise of his will power. A mental illness which only diminishes the exercise of will power may give rise to a mitigating circumstance only.

MINORITYWHAT ARE THE LEGAL CONSEQUENCES OF MINORITY UNDER THE NEW LAW (RA 9344)?

1.) If the offender is 15 years old or less at the time of the commission of the offense, he is EXEMPT FROM CRIMINAL LIABILITY but not from civil liability. But although he is exempt from criminal liability, he shall be subjected to an “intervention program” pursuant to Sec. 20 of the law.

2) If the offender is more than 15 years but less than 18 years of age at the time he committed the offense and he acted without discernment, he is STILL EXEMPT FROM CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

3) If the offender who is above 15 but under 18 years of age at the time of the commission of the offense acted with discernment, he shall undergo the “diversion program” prescribed by the law.

OFFENSES WHERE PERSONS LESS THAN 18 YEARS OLD ARE EXEMPT (RA 9344)

1) Vagrancy (Art. 202)
2) Prostitution (Art. 202)
3) Mendicancy (PD 1563)
4) Sniffing Rugby ( PD 1619)

ACCIDENT

Illustrative Case: A fired his gun several times upward in the air on the eve of a new year in Manila. One of the slugs fired by him fell on the head of a boy who was playing on the street. Is A criminally liable for the death of the boy?

Yes. This is not a case of pure accident, which is an exempting circumstance. The discharge of firearm in a thickly populated place like Manila is prohibited and penalized under Art. 155 of the RPC. Hence, A was not performing a lawful act. He is in fact at fault.

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