GR 45186; (September, 1936) (Digest)
G.R. No. 45186; September 30, 1936
THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, plaintiff-appellee, vs. JOSEFINA BANDIAN, defendant-appellant.
FACTS
The appellant, Josefina Bandian, was charged with infanticide. The prosecution’s evidence showed that on the morning of January 31, 1936, a neighbor saw her emerge from a thicket, weak, dizzy, and with blood-stained clothes. Shortly after, the body of her newborn child was found in that thicket. When shown the child, she acknowledged it as hers. Dr. Emilio Nepomuceno testified that based on the blood in her house and bed, she gave birth there and later threw the child into the thicket to kill it, an act she allegedly admitted to him. However, the doctor also stated the child’s wounds were caused by animal bites, not human intervention. The defense emphasized the appellant’s extreme debility, dizziness from a long fever, and inexperience as a primipara. She claimed she went to the thicket to defecate and was unaware she had given birth there.
ISSUE
Whether the appellant is guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of infanticide.
RULING
No. The Supreme Court reversed the conviction. The evidence failed to prove the appellant willfully, consciously, or imprudently killed or abandoned her child. Her acknowledgment of the child and the doctor’s uncorroborated testimony about an admission were insufficient. Given her physical and mental state—extreme debility, dizziness from fever, and inexperience—she likely was not even aware of the childbirth. Without such awareness, there can be no criminal intent (dolo) or negligence (culpa). The act of going to the thicket was a lawful response to a physiological need. The subsequent abandonment and the child’s death were accidental consequences of her impaired condition, not a punishable act or omission. Therefore, she is exempt from criminal liability.
AI Generated by Armztrong.