This is a continuation of the topic discussed the other week week pertaining to the stages of felony. In this week’s edition, we will focuse on the frustrated and consummated phase of a felony.
Frustrated.
To reiterate, it is deemed frustrated when the offender performs all the acts of execution which would produce the felony as a consequence but which, nevertheless, do not produce it by reason of causes independent of the will of the perpetrator. In frustrated phase, the offender had already performed all the acts needed in order to consummate the crime, however, by reason of other causes, the accomplishment aimed was not fulfilled.
To put it in another way, nothing is left to be done to accomplish the work of the offender completely. It just happened that the cause intended was not materialized by reason of forces independent of the will of the perpetrator.
As elucidated by the Supreme Court, subjectively the crime is complete. Nothing interrupted the offender while he was passing through the subjective phase. The crime, however, is not consummated by reason of the intervention of causes independent of the will of the offender. He did all that was necessary to commit the crime. If the crime did not result as a consequence it was due to something beyond his control.
The subjective phase is that portion of the acts constituting the crime included between the act which begins the commission of the crime and the last act performed by the offender which, with the prior acts, should result in the consummated crime. From that time forward the phase is objective. It may also be said to be that period occupied by the acts of the offender over which he has control – that period between the point where he begins and the points where he voluntarily desists. If between these two points the offender is stopped by reason of any cause outside of his own voluntary desistance, the subjective phase has not been passed and it is an attempt. If he is not so stopped but continues until he performs the last act, it is frustrated.
To make thing clearer, jurisprudence makes a distinction between a frustrated and an attempted felony, to wit:
1.) In frustrated felony, the offender has performed all the acts of execution which should produce the felony as a consequence; whereas in attempted felony, the offender merely “commences the commission of a felony directly by overt acts and does not perform all the acts of execution.
2.) In frustrated felony, the reason for the non-accomplishment of the crime is some cause independent of the will of the perpetrator; on the other hand, in attempted felony, the reason for the non-fulfillment of the crime is a cause or accident other than the offender’s own spontaneous desistance.
In murder or homicide case, the Supreme Court have ruled in several cases that when the accused intended to kill his victim, as manifested by his use of a deadly weapon in his assault, and his victim sustained fatal or mortal wound/s but did not die because of timely medical assistance, the crime committed is frustrated murder or frustrated homicide depending on whether or not any of the qualifying circumstances under Article 249 of the Revised Penal Code are present. However, if the wound/s sustained by the victim in such a case were not fatal or mortal, then the crime committed is only attempted murder or attempted homicide.
In addition, the penalty also varies whether the crime is at its attempted or frustrated phase. It would be one degree lower from the prescribed by law if it is frustrated and two degrees lower if it is attempted. For example, homicide is punishable by reclusion temporal under the Revised Penal Code. If it is at its frustrated phase (frustrated homicide), the penalty imposed is prision mayor (one degree lower from reclusion temporal). If the crime committed is merely attempted homicide, the imposable penalty is prision correctional.
Consummated.
A felony is consummated when all the elements necessary for it execution and accomplishment are present. In this phase, all the elements of a crime as defined under the law are present. The goal aimed was attained, the intended act was accomplished.
(This piece was supposed to appear in the Nov. 13, 2024 issue but the paper erroneously published the succeeding column. Our apologies to the columnist and dear readers.)