What to focus on:

1. Exempting and privileged mitigating circumstance of minority

Minor
-a person below 18 yo.
Child in conflict with law
-a person above 15 but below 18 yo who acted with discernment

2. Suspension of sentence for minors

-there is automatic suspension of sentence upon finding of guilt if the accused is above 15 but
below 18 yo who is found to have acted with discernment.
-prosecutor shall determine if diversion is appropriate or not.

3. Malversation, corruption of public officer, direct bribery

4. Justifying circumstances of self-defense and defense of strangers

Self-defense requisites:
i. Unlawful aggression
-actual physical assault
-Threatened assault of an immediate and imminent kind which is offensive and positively strong
showing the wrongful intent to cause injury
ii. Reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel it
iii. Lack of sufficient provocation on the part of the person defending
Defense of relatives requisites:
i. Unlawful aggression
ii. Reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel it
iii. In case the provocation was given by the person attacked, the one making defense had no part
therein
-relatives that can be defended include: spouse, ascendants, descendants, legitimate, natural or
adopted brothers and sisters, or relative by affinity in the same degrees, relatives by
consanguinity within the 4th civil degree
Defense of a stranger requisites:
i. Unlawful aggression
ii. Reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel it
iii. Person defending was not induced by revenge, resentment, or other evil motive

5. Exempting circumstance of accident

Requisites:
i. A person is performing a lawful act
ii. With due care
iii. He causes injury to another by mere accident
iv. Without fault or intention of causing it

6. Mistake of fact
Requisites
i. That the act done would have been lawful had the facts been as the accused believed them to
be
ii. That the intention of the accused in performing the act should be lawful
iii. Mistake must be without fault or carelessness on the part of the accused

7. Freedom/voluntariness to commit, intelligence/understanding of the consequences, and

criminal intent
-elements of intentional felony

8. Intentional felony vs. culpable felony

Intentional felony:
i. Freedom
ii. Intelligence
iii. Criminal intent
Culpable felony:
i. Freedom
ii. Intelligence
iii. Negligence, imprudence, lack of foresight, or lack of skill

9. Serious illegal detention and arbitrary detention

10. Seduction and child sexual abuse
11. Sweetheart defense

12. What are the privileged mitigating, mitigating, and alternative circumstances
Privileged mitigating circumstances:
i. Incomplete justifying/exempting circumstances
ii. Accused is over 15 but under 18 yo and acted with discernment
iii. There are two or more mitigating circumstances and one aggravating circumstance.
Mitigating circumstances:
i. No intention to commit so grave a wrong
ii. Provocation or threat
iii. Vindication of a grave offense
iv. Passion or obfuscation
v. Surrender and confession of guilt
vi. Physical defect of offender
vii. Illness of the offender
viii. Similar or analogous circumstances
Alternative circumstances:
i. Relationship
ii. Intoxication
iii. Degree of instruction and education of offender
*See Fra Santos cliff notes for details (mitigating, aggravating, alternative)
13. Recidivism vs. Reiteracion vs. Habitual delinquency vs. quasi recidivism
Recidivism
i. Offender is on trial for an offense.
ii. Offender was previously convicted by final judgment of another crime.
iii. Both the first and second offenses are embraced in the same title of the RPC.
iv. Offender is convicted of the new offense.
Reiteracion
i. The accused is on trial for an offense.
ii. He has previously served sentence for another crime which the law attaches an equal or
greater penalty or for two or more crimes with lighter penalties.
iii. The accused is convicted of the new offense.
Habitual delinquency
i. Offender has been convicted of any of the crimes of serious or less serious physical injuries,
robbery, theft, estafa or falsification.
ii. After that conviction or after serving his sentence, he again committed, within 10 years from
his release or first conviction, he was again convicted of any of the said crimes for the second
time.

iii. After his conviction of, or after serving sentence for, the second offense, he again committed,
and within 10 years from his last release or conviction, he was again convicted of any said
offenses, the third time or oftener.
Quasi-recidivism
i. A person commits a felony.
ii. After having been convicted by final judgment.
iii. Before beginning to serve such sentence, or while serving the same.
14. Rape by sexual assault
15. Treason
16. Attempted homicide, homicide
17. Art. 4, mistake in the blow, mistake in the identity, impossible crime, proximate cause,
efficient intervening cause
Art. 4(1) requisites (felony different from that intended to be committed):
i. The accused must be committing a felony.
ii. The felony must be intentional.
iii. The felony committed by the accused should be the proximate cause of the resulting injury.
Error in personae (mistake in the identity of the victim)
-when a crime intended to a person is committed to another because the offender mistook the
latters identity as the former.
Aberratio ictus (mistake in the blow)
-is committed when an offender attacks another but due to the mistake in the execution of the
attack, another person, whom the offender has no intention to injure, suffers said attack.
Praeter intentionem
-is committed when an injury resulted from an act is greater than the injury intended to be caused
by the offender.
Art. 4(2) requisites (impossible crime):
i. That the act performed would be an offense against persons or property.
ii. That the act was done with evil intent.
iii. That its accomplishment is inherently impossible, or that the means employed is either
inadequate or ineffectual.
iv. That the act performed should not constitute a violation of another provision of the RPC.
18. Complex crimes (Art. 48)

-when a single act constitutes 2 or more grave or less grave felonies (compound crime), or when
an offense is a necessary means for committing the other (complex crime proper).
Examples of special complex crimes:
i. Art. 294 on robbery with homicide, robbery with rape, robbery with mutilation, robbery with
serious physical injuries
ii. Art. 320 on arson with homicide
iii. Art. 267 on kidnapping with homicide, kidnapping with rape, kidnapping with serious
physical injuries
iv. Art. 266-A rape with homicide
19. Exempting circumstance of insanity
20. Death under exceptional circumstances (Art. 247)
21. Intentional abortion, unintentional abortion
22. Dangerous drugs act
23. Cybercrime law
24. Slight physical injuries, serious physical, less serious
25. Concept of principal, accomplice, accessory
26. Special complex crime of robbery with homicide
27. Robbery, theft
28. Murder
29. Conspiracy
Requisites:
i. There are two or more persons who come into an agreement.
ii. The agreement pertains to the commission of a felony.
iii. The execution of the felony was decided upon.
Conspiracy may be inferred from the collective acts of the accused before, during, and after the
commission of the crime.
The elements of conspiracy must be proven beyond reasonable doubt.
Overt acts may consist in the following:
i. Active participation in the actual commission of the crime itself.
ii. Moral assistance to his co-conspirators by being present at the commission of the crime.
iii. Exerting moral ascendancy over the other conspirators.
30. Stages of execution
Consummated felony
-when all the elements necessary for its execution and accomplishment are present.

Frustrated felony
i. Offender performs all the acts of execution.
ii. All the acts performed would produce the felony as a consequence.
iii. Felony is not produced.
iv.. By reason of causes independent of the will of the perpetrator.
Attempted felony
i. Offender commences the commission of the felony directly by overt acts.
ii. He does not perform all the acts of execution which would produce the felony.
iii. Non-performance was due to a cause or accident other than the offenders own spontaneous
desistance.