US VS Ah Chong Cherie Mae
US VS Ah Chong Cherie Mae
US VS Ah Chong Cherie Mae
Aguinaldo
Legal Techniques and Logic
US VS Ah Chong
GR No. L-5272,
March 19, 1910
FACTS:
"Officers' quarters, No. 27," Fort Mc Kinley, Rizal Province. Living with him,
was Pascual Gualberto, deceased, who was also employed as a house boy.
No one slept in the house except the two servants who jointly occupied a
small room which was not furnished with a permanent lock and was
connected to a narrow porch covered by a heavy growth of vines. Aside from
the door and a window which lead to the porch, there were no other
openings of any kind in the room.
There had been several robberies in Fort Mc Kinley which caused the
defendant to keep a knife under his pillow for protection. The defendant and
the deceased also agreed that when either returns at night, he should knock
on the door and say his name.
In the night of August 14, 1908, at about 10:00, the defendant, who
was afraid of bad elements, was awakened by someone trying to open the
door. He called out twice Who is there? but no one answered. Fearing that
the intruder was a robber or a thief, the defendant called out again "If you
enter the room, I will kill you." At that moment he was struck just above the
knee by the edge of the chair which he thought to be an unlawful
aggression, which had been placed against the door. Using his knife, the
defendant struck out wildly at the intruder who, it afterwards turned out,
was his roommate. Thereupon, he called to his employers and rushed back
into the room to secure the bandages to bind up the wound. The defendant
was charged with murder.
ISSUE:
committing a felony.
DECISION:
The trial court held that the defendant was guilty of simple
Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea, "the act itself does not make
man guilty unless his intention were so; " Actus me incito factus non est
meus actus, "an act done by me against my will is not my act;". The essence
of the offense is the wrongful intent. Without which, it cannot exist. Since
evil intent is in general an inseparable element in every crime, any such
mistake of fact as shows the act committed to have proceeded from no sort
of evil in the mind necessarily relieves the actor from criminal liability
provided always there is no fault or negligence on his part.