PEOPLE vs. GENOSA (2004)

"♫ This is my laast night with youu. ♪ Hold me like I'm more than just a frieend.. ♫ ♪Give me a memory I can use.. ♪"  -- Geez.. 11:15 in the evening and I'm.. trying to sing an Adele the most decent way I can on top of my voice in front of this fuckin' lagging computer.

Here's a landmark case, Criminal Law. The crime is parricide. You know the widely celebrated Lorena Bobbitt Case? 'Happened in the states. It made world-wide headings. Wife cut's the sleeping husband's dick? I'm wondrin' why it didn't happen here. Well the reason for that is her husband's philandering spree. Crazy woman isn't she? That's why when I'm gonna marry I'm really gonna take a close look at the woman's emotional and mental state. Baka pag natutulog ako biglang putulin yun (beep! beep!) ko eh. 'Wonder how it feels that must be crazy. A doctor friend I know said it can be put back together. "Really doc?" "Ofcourse" "But will it function same as its previous state prior?" "Kung maganda pagkagawa eh" "MAGANDA PAGKAGAWA??!!!  ARrGh!... hahah anu yun overhaul ng makina?" "Kailangan makuha mo sya ng maaga and fresh pa" "FRESH PA!!!... jusko day" (hehehe tawa ng tawa yung nurse eh) Geez, imagine grabbing your dick on your way out. Crazy.

Take note of this case, it's a fairly new case. This is a landmark case in Criminal Law. Listen... this is the first time in the Philippines that the "battered woman syndrome" was used as a defense. And it won. Well of course the  wife was already incarcerated but she was recommended for parole just because of this defense used by her lawyer. Atty. De Jesus is correct. It's better to use a defense, or do motions or petitions and plead which you think the court wouldn't grant than use about 10 pleadings that you know the court would grant. Malay mo nga naman i-grant katulad nito. At least you can really say that you have exhausted all remedies and did your job well.

Facts of the case states that ah.. the wife had suffered maltreatment from her husband for over eight years?.. That's too long. This is probably a long suffering sacrificing woman. But then again that remains to be proved. Sometimes women allow themselves to be pushed that far and bear it because their uneducated, they had no means, and they don't have anywhere else to go.  

The thing was.. she was 8 months pregnant when, one evening, her husband came home drunk and started battering her. (so binugbog). 

'Tang ina..

Shouting that his wife "might as well be killed so there will be nobody to nag" him.  So he dragged her towards a drawer where he kept a gun, but was not able to open the drawer because it was locked. 

So papatayin talaga ni kolokoy..

So he got out a cutter from his wallet, but dropped it. (Lasing na talaga eh) The wife was able to hit his arm with a pipe and escape into another room. 

Here's the thing..

The wife, thinking of all the suffering that her husband had been inflicting on her all those years and thinking that he might really kill her and her unborn child, distorted the drawer and got the gun. She shot her husband, who was by then asleep on the bed. And killed him.

So take note applying the principles of  Self Defense  1.  the Unlawful Aggression had ceased. 2. Holding a gun pointing it on a sleeping person is definitely not a reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel the attack... in fact there was no longer an attack. 3.   Lack of sufficient provocation.. this had been present, in fact she ran to the other room. But who knows, maybe there was, we can infer from the words of her husband "...so there will be nobody to nag" she really might have startled something but I wouldn't think it's enough. It's understandable in women. 

So she was tried and convicted for parricide, which is punishable by an indivisible penalty of reclusion perpetua (20 years and 1 day to 40 years) to death. On appeal, she alleged "battered woman syndrome" as a form of self-defense.

ISSUE: 

Considering that the elements of a justifying circumstance did not suffice or not all the requisites of  Art. 11 were present to invoke self defense, may "battered woman syndrome" be regarded as a form of self-defense to exempt the accused from criminal liability?

RULING: 

The Supreme Court said YES.  (Kalain mo yon?) 

The court said, however, that the records lack supporting evidence that would establish all the essentials of the battered woman syndrome as manifested specifically in this case. 

But more specifically, the Court stated: 

By the time the wife killed her husband, there was no longer any aggression on his part to justify a claim of self-defense. 

However, the Court also found that the cycle of abuse inflicted by the husband resulted in POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER  on the part of the wife, which lessened her freedom of action, intelligence, and intent, resulting in a "psychological paralysis".

I dunno, maybe the lawyer had presented an amicus curiae such as a medical expert like a psychiatrist or a psychometrician to build up an opinion evidence.. reason why the court accepted it who knows? (nope I didn't read the actual case).   

Also, the battering she received at his hands before she killed him produced PASSION & OBFUSCATION (which is a mitigating circumstance) which overcame her reason. 

So these were appreciated by the Court as mitigating circumstances. What about the killing of someone while asleep, isn't that Treachery? An Aggravating Circumstance?

The Court found that there was no treachery. 

The wife's conviction was affirmed, but considering the mitigating circumstances, her sentence was reduced. Since she had already served more than the minimum sentence, the Court said that she might be considered for parole.

So pwede palang defense yon ah? Were looking at a precedent here. Hehe.