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PEOPLE vs. Fernando Galera

PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, plaintiff-appellee, vs. FERNANDO GALERA y ROBLES, accused-appellant.

G.R. No. 115938 | 1997-10-10

D E C I S I O N

VITUG, J:

Article III, Section 19, of the 1987 Constitution, ratified by the people on 02 February 1987, has authorized Congress to impose the death penalty. Conformably therewith, Republic Act ("R.A.") No. 7659 has been enacted to revive the capital punishment in our statute books. A death penalty handed down by a trial court sets into motion a mechanism for an automatic review 1 by this Court. In the discharge of this weighty responsibility, the Court exercises the greatest circumspection for there can be no stake higher and no penalty more severe, even in an equivalent atonement of a grave crime, than the termination...