U.S. v DELA CRUZNo. 7094 | March 29, 1912 | J. Carson

FACTS: The convict killed his concubine/lover after discovering her in carnal communication with a mutual acquaintance. RTC convicted him of homicide with no aggravating or extenuating circumstance and sentenced him to 14 years, 18 months and 1 day of reclusion temporal. SC said RTC should have considered Art. 9, subsection 7 (now Art. 13(6)) which considers that of having acted upon an impulse so powerful as naturally to have produced passion and obfuscation as an extenuating/mitigating circumstance. In the present case, there was a sudden revelation of the affair (probably caught them in the act) of the woman that produced the passion and obfuscation. This was compared to other cases: SC of Spain in another case similar to this one: the immediate cause of the crime (meaning the discovery of the affair) produced strong emotions in the accused which impelled him to the criminal act and even to attempt his own life (he shot himself, inflicting a serious wound). These are sufficient impulses in the natural and ordinary course to produce the violent passion and obfuscation, which the law regards as a special reason for extenuation. US v Hicks: In this case, the accused had time to reflect. He planned out the whole killing, even conversed with his victim and carried other weapons and other loaded cartridges. The ruling here, which was to not accept the circumstance, was not applied to the present case because there was premeditation. Plus, the woman in this case refused to continue to live with the accused as opposed to the case at bar. Penalty reduced to 12 years an one day of reclusion temporal because of the extenuating circumstance.

Guys, might as well read the case na lang. Super short. :)))