This case has been cited 2 times or more.
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2012-04-25 |
SERENO, J. |
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| Article III, Section 14 of the 1987 Constitution, mandates that no person shall be held liable for a criminal offense without due process of law. It further provides that in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against him.[35] This is a right that cannot be invoked by petitioner, because he is not the accused in this case. | |||||
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2001-06-21 |
YNARES-SANTIAGO, J. |
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| However, the Informations in the two attempted murder cases failed to allege the essential elements necessary to convict accused-appellants of the said crimes. In particular, there was nothing in the latter two Informations from which it may be concluded that accused-appellants commenced the commission of the felony directly or by overt acts and did not perform all the acts of execution which should have produced the felony by reason of some cause or accident other than their own spontaneous desistance.[40] Without these allegations, the elements necessary to constitute the felony of attempted murder cannot be said to have been properly alleged, and accused-appellants cannot be convicted of a crime with which they were not charged. Otherwise, to convict them of attempted murder, when the same is not the crime charged in the Information, would be to violate their constitutional and statutory right[41] to criminal due process, and in particular, their right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against them.[42] It must be remembered that it is not the designation of the offense in the Information described by the prosecution that governs, rather it is the allegations in the Information that must be considered in determining what crime is charged.[43] All that the Informations alleged was that accused-appellants fired and discharged their M-16 rifles against the moving pumpboat, hitting and wounding the injured complainants, who required medical attention. Clearly, these bare allegations are not enough to sustain a charge for attempted murder. At most, based on the allegations in the Information in Criminal Case Nos. 92-09-477 (1531) and 92-09-478 (1532), accused-appellants can be convicted only of physical injuries -- a lesser felony absorbed in the crime of attempted murder. At any rate, the Rules sanction a conviction for a crime which is necessarily included in the crime charged, so long as the former is proven.[44] | |||||