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Dec 7, 2018 · Life imprisonment and reclusion perpetua are different penalties with distinct features and consequences. Learn the clarifications from the Supreme Court and the examples of their application in criminal cases.
- Fast Fact: Presidential Pardons
Initially facing reclusion perpetua (life imprisonment) for...
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Life imprisonment vs reclusion perpetua. Life imprisonment...
- Fast Fact: Presidential Pardons
Learn the difference between reclusion perpetua and life imprisonment in Philippine criminal law. See bar exam questions and answers, and the duration, accessory penalties, and sources of each penalty.
Accused-appellant was convicted of rape and sentenced to death by the RTC and the CA. He appealed to the SC, arguing that the death penalty was unconstitutional and that he had a relationship with the victim.
RECLUSION PERPETUA — THE PENALTY OF RECLUSION PERPETUA SHALL BE FROM TWENTY YEARS AND ONE DAY TO THIRTY YEARS. Thus, life imprisonment, therefore a penalty imposed by special penal statutes, was sought to be incorporated as penalty in the revised Penal Code with a specific duration.
Reclusión perpetua is prescribed for crimes punishable by the Revised Penal Code, while life imprisonment is imposed on offenses punishable by special laws. Reclusión perpetua carries the accessory penalty in which, as defined by Philippine law, the prisoner is barred for life from holding political office.
Notably, there was no reference to persons convicted of offense punishable with reclusion perpetua. However, the Court, in several cases, has considered the penalty of reclusion perpetua to be synonymous to life imprisonment for purposes of the Indeterminate Sentence Law, and ADMINISTRATOR.
(a) the penalty of reclusion perpetua, when the law violated makes use of the nomenclature of the penalties of the Revised Penal Code; or (b) the penalty of life imprisonment, when the law violated does not make use of the nomenclature of the penalties of the Revised Penal Code.
