CRIMINAL LAW CASE DIGEST | PEOPLE V. CEMPRON, 187 SCRA 248
PEOPLE V. CEMPRON,
187 SCRA 248
TOPIC/DOCTRINE
In crimes
punishable with death or life imprisonment provided the resulting penalty after
considering the attendant circumstances, is reclusion temporal or less, the
Indeterminate Sentence Law applies.
FACTS
This is an appeal
interposed by accused Alfredo Cempron who was convicted of the crime of Murder
by the Regional Trial Court of Bohol,1 Branch 3, for stabbing to death one
Gregorio Gudelusao on November 1, 1982. Appellant alleges that the trial court
erred in imposing the penalty of reclusion perpetua. Prosecution witness
Agripino Lofranco, a barangay official in the place of the stabbing incident,
positively testified that in the same evening of said incident appellant
purposely went to him and sought his help in surrendering to the police
authorities and he actually turned over appellant to them.
ISSUE
Does the ISLAW
apply?
RULING
No.
The trial court
failed to consider one (1) mitigating circumstance, that is, voluntary
surrender. The court ruled that the penalty for murder is reclusion temporal
maximum to death. Considering the mitigating circumstance of voluntary
surrender, the imposible penalty would be the minimum period of the penalty
provided for by law which has a range of 17 years 4 months and 1 day to 20
years. In crimes punishable with death or life imprisonment provided the
resulting penalty, after considering the attending circumstances, is reclusion
temporal or less, the Indeterminate Sentence Law applies. Applying the
provisions of the Indeterminate Sentence Law, the minimum range of the
indeterminate sentence is 10 years 1 day to 17 years 4 months and the maximum
range is 17 years 4 months 1 day to 20 years.