Criminal Law › The Revised Penal Code – Book One › Felonies › Stages of Execution

d. Spontaneous Desistance

ELEMENTS

  • Offender commences the commission of the felony directly by overt acts;

Overt acts – Some physical activity or deed, indicating the intention to commit a particular crime, more than a mere planning or preparation, which if carried to its complete termination following its natural course, without being frustrated by external obstacles nor by the voluntary desistance of the perpetrator, will logically and necessarily ripen into a concrete offense.

  • He does not perform all the acts of execution which should produce the felony;

If the offender has performed all the acts of execution – nothing more is left to be done – the stage of execution is that of a frustrated felony, if the felony is not produced; or consummated, if the felony is produced;

  • Offender’s act is not stopped by his own spontaneous desistance;

“Spontaneous” – means proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint; synonymous with impulsive, automatic and mechanical.

The accused will be exempt from criminal liability only when:

  • Spontaneous desistance is done during the attempted stage; and
  • No crime under another provision of the Code or other penal law is committed.
  • Non-performance of all acts of execution was due to cause or accident other than his spontaneous desistance.

Desistance

It is an absolutory cause, which negates criminal liability because the law encourages a person to desist from committing a crime.

Desistance should be made before all the acts of execution are performed, i.e. after the offender commences the felony by overt acts but before the offender performs all acts of execution.

Legal Desistance vs. Factual Desistance

LEGAL FACTUAL
DEFINITION
Desistance referred to in law which would obviate criminal liability, unless the overt or preparatory act already committed in themselves constitute a felony other than what the actor intended Actual desistance of the actor; the actor is still liable for a frustrated or consummated felony, as applicable.
TIME OR PERIOD EMPLOYED
Desistance made during the attempted stage. Desistance made after the attempted stage of the crime.

REQUISITES:

  • The offender had not been actually arrested;
  • The offender surrenders himself to a person in authority or to the latter’s agent;
  • PERSON IN AUTHORITY is one directly vested with jurisdiction, i.e., a public officer who has the power to govern and execute the laws whether as an individual or as a member of some court or governmental corporation, board or commission;
  • AGENT OF A PERSON IN AUTHORITY is a person, who, by direct provision of the law, or by election or by appointment by competent authority, is charged with the maintenance of public order and the protection and security of life and property and any person who comes to the aid of persons in authority; and
  • The surrender was voluntary.

It must be spontaneous in such a manner that it shows the interest of the accused to surrender unconditionally to the authorities, either because he acknowledges his guilt or because he wishes to save them the trouble and expenses necessarily incurred in his search and capture.