Article 11 Flashcards
Subject matter of Article 11
Justifying circumstances
those acts of a person said to be in accordance with law, such that a person is deemed not to have committed a crime and is therefore free from both criminal and civil liability.
Justifying circumstances
Enumerate all six justifying circumstances
- Self-defense;
- Defense of relatives;
- Defense of stranger;
- Avoidance of greater evil or injury;
- Fulfillment of duty or exercise of right or office; and
- Obedience to an order of a superior.
Paragraph 1 of Article 11 of the RPC
Self defense.
Three requisites of self-defense.
- Unlawful aggression
- Reasonable necessity of the means employed to repel or prevent it
- Lack of sufficient provocation on the part of the person defending himself.
Three elements of unlawful aggression
- Physical or material attack
- Actual or at least imminent attack
- Attack must be unlawful
People v. Resurrecion, et al. (Effects of the invocation of self-defense)
The accused:
1. Admits having killed the victim and
2. The proof of establishing that the circumstances which justify the act shifts to him.
Self-defense includes five things other that defense’s one’s life:
- Defense of one’s honor
- Defense of one’s dwelling, granted that the said defense must be coupled with an attack upon the person defending it.
- Defense of rights
- Defense of property rights
- Self defense in libel
Gotis v. People (Two characteristics of unlawful aggression)
- Unlawful aggression as condition sine qua non.
- Unlawful aggression as a continuing circumstance. Must have been existing at the time the defense is made
U.S. v. Merced (Self defense requires performance of lawful acts)
You may not invoke self-defense if you kill an aggressor while your are performing an unlawful and criminal act.
People v. Dunlin (Two kinds of unlawful aggression)
Two kinds of unlawful aggression:
1. Actual. Material aggression which determines the intent of the aggressor to cause an injury (also in People v. Jose Laurel)
2. Imminent. Attack impending or at the point of happening. Not mere threatening attitude nor imaginary. (Also in People v. Cabungcal).
Two kinds of peril
- Peril to one’s life
- Peril to one’s limb. Vital part of the body.
T/F. A slap on the face may be considered unlawful aggression.
True. The face represents a person and his dignity.
People v. Arellano (That the attack must be…)
The attack must be successive or at least simultaneous, without appreciable interval of time.
People v. Calantos (What is NOT unlawful aggression)
The act of placing a hand in a pocket as if to draw out something is NOT unlawful aggression
People v. Tolentino (Wounds of the accused)
The nature, character, location, and extent of the wounds of the accused may belie the claim of self-defense.
People v. Manansala (Denial to give the statements)
Denying to give any statement when one surrenders to a policeman is inconsistent with the plea of self-defense.
People v. Alconga (Fleeing aggressor)
When the aggressor flees, unlawful aggression no longer exists.
Isidro Miranda v. People (Retaliation)
Retaliation is not self-defense. Retaliation implies that unlawful aggression ceased when the accused attacked him. Self-defense implies that the aggression is continuing when the injured the aggressor accused
People v. Boral (Toy weapon)
There is unlawful aggression if the aggressor used a toy weapon provided that the accused believed it was a real weapon.
People v. Jefferson Warriner (Three elements of unlawful aggression)
- Must be physical or material attack
- Must be actual or at least imminent
- Attack must be unlawful.
People v. de la Cruz (Rape of woman)
There is unlawful aggression if a person attempts to rape a woman. Defense of right to chastity.
People v. Apolinar (Defense of property granted what?)
Defense of property granted it is coupled with an attack
