PUNISHMENT

Punishment - The redress that the state takes against an offending number of the
society that usually involves pain and suffering. It is also the penalty imposed on an
offender for a crime or wrongdoing.

Ancient Forms of Punishment

a. Death Penalty/Corporal Punishment
It is implemented by burning, beheading, hanging, and breaking the wheels, pillory
and other forms of medieval execution. Poisoning was emerged as an elitist form of
capital punishment. Socrates, remains one of the most famous figures to be executed in
this manner.
b. Physical Torture - It is implemented by maiming, mutilation, whipping and
other inhuman and barbaric form of inflicting pain.
c. Social Degradation. Putting the offender into shame or humiliation.
d. Banishment or Exile- Ostracism - The sending or putting away of an offender
which was carried out either by prohibition against coming into a specified territory
such as an island to where the offender has been removed. For ten years, the person
will be exiled and this is derived from the vote of citizens.
e. Slavery. Emphasizes the idea of complete ownership and control by a
master.
f. Transportation. Banishment, as of a criminal to a penal colony; deportation.
g. Mutilation . To deprive a person of a limb or other essential part.
h. Branding. A mark formerly put upon criminals with a hot iron indicating the
type of crime they had committed. (M-murder, T- thief).
i. Ducking Tools. It was a popular form of punishment often used for scolding
woman. The culprit was strapped into a chair attached to a long lever. The operator
could duck the chair into the water and thereby by submerge the culprit and crowds
would often gather to watch. Quarrelsome married couples were ducked tied back to
back.
j. Flogging – Whipping. Whipping as a form of punishment can be found in the
bible (Deuteronomy).
k. Pillory. A wooden framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the
head and hands, formerly used to expose an offender to public derision.
l. Stock. A former instrument of punishment consisting of framework with hole
of securing the ankles and sometimes, the writs, used to expose an offender to public
derision.

Early Forms of Prison Discipline

1. Hard Labor - Productive works
2. Deprivation - Deprivation of everything except the essential needs of
existence.
3. Monotony. Giving the same food that is off diet, or requiring the prisoners
to perform drab or boring daily routine.
4. Uniformity. ˗ “We treat the prisoners alike”, “The fault of one is fault of all”.
5. Mass Movement ˗ Mass living in the cellblocks, mass eating, mass recreation,
mass bathing.
6. Degradation ˗ Uttering insulting words or languages on the part of prison
staff to the prisoners to degrade or break the confidence of prisoners.
7. Corporal Punishment˗ Imposing brutal punishment or employing physical
force to intimidate a delinquent inmate
8. Isolation of Solitary Confinement ˗ Non – communication, limited news, “the
lone wolf”.

Forms of Capital Punishment

1. Gassing - A gas chamber is a means of execution whereby a poisonous gas is
introduced into a hermetically sealed chamber. When the condemned breathes this gas;
death follows, Hydrogen Cyanide or more rarely Carbon Monoxide are the typical agent.
The first person to be executed in US was a Korean national Gee Jon on February 1924
in Nevada. The last person to be executed in the gas chamber was a German National
Walter La Grand from Arizona on March 4, 1994.

2. Electric Chair. A device commonly used for execution of convicted criminals

during the 20th century. Harlon Brown invented the first practical electric chair. William
Kemmler (New York) – first person execution via the electric chain in Auburn Prison on
August 6, 1890. Maria M. Place was the first woman to be executed in the electric chair,
executed at Sing– Sing Prison on March 20, 1890.

The case of execution via electric chair in the Philippines is effected by R.A. 7659
otherwise known as Death Penalty law, an act to impose the death penalty on a certain
heinous crime. The death penalty was abolished in the Philippines in 1987 the first Asian
country that abolished death penalty, but re-imposed in 1994 due to upsurge in heinous
crime. Jaime Jose, Basilio Pineda and Edgardo Aquino, executed on May 1972 because
of the abduction and gang rape of the young actress, Maggie Dela Riva during
the dictatorship of former President Ferdinand Marcos. Marcelo San Jose was executed
on October 1976.
3. Hanging - Is a form of execution of method of suicide in England the sharp
drop method was used until the 19th century until 20th century long drop was
introduced, which caused the breaking of neck. Hanging is a form of judicial execution in
England date from the Saxon period area AD 400.
4. Lethal Injection - Is a method of capital punishment, it gained popularity in
the 20th as supposedly humane for execution.
 Use intravenous administration
 Theinjection is intravenous and is a usually a mixture of compound, designed to inducerapid
unconsciousness followed by death through muscular paralysis of the lungs and orby
inducing; cardia depolarization.
Lethal injection in the country is affected by RA 8177 known as “Act designating
Death by Lethal Injections”. Execution by lethal injection actually started only in 1999
and seven death convicts were executed injections until 2000.

Three Chemical Compound uses in Lethal Injection

The execution of victim involves 3 separate injections.
1. Sodium Thiopental – to induce a state of unconsciousness intended to last while the other
injection takes effect.
2. Pancuronium or Tubocaranine – to stop all muscle movement except the
heart. Thus cause involuntary muscled paralysis, collapse of the diaphragm and
eventually death asphyxiation.
3. Potassium Chloride – stop the heart from beating and
thus the victim death.

 Hitler personal Doctor Karl Brandt was the first suggest injecting a lethal
dose of poison as an execution method to disabled people.
 US second nation to experiment with lethal injections as means of
execution on December 7, 1982 when Charles Brooks was executed in Texas.
 In the Philippines, Leo Echegary, was executed on February 5, 1999, for
raping his 10 years old step daughter, was sentenced death by the Quezon City
Regional Trial Court in September 1994.

5. Decapitation or Beheading - It is the removal of living beings’ head inevitably

resulting to death. Maybe accomplished through the use of an axe, sword or knife, or by
means of guillotine
6. Firing Squad - Is a method of capital management particularly common in
times of war, a firing squad is a group of people usually soldiers, who are ordered to
shoot at the condemned person simultaneously. It is commonly used to execute spies. It
also used to execute war criminal after WW2 most notably by Poland and Russia.
Contemporary Forms of Punishment
1. Imprisonment - Putting the offender in prison for the purpose of protection
the public against criminal activities and at the same time rehabilitating the prisoners
by requiring them to undergo institutional treatment programs.
2. Parole - A conditional release of a prisoner after serving part of his/her
sentence in prison for the purpose of gradually re- introduced him/her to free life
under the guidance and supervision of a parole officer.
3. Probation - A disposition whereby a defendant after conviction of an offense, the penalty of which
does not exceed
six year imprisonment, is released subject to the conditions imposed by the releasing
court and under the supervision of a probation officer.
4. Fine. Paid as punishment: a sum of money that somebody is ordered to pay
for breaking a law or rule. An amount given as a compensation for a criminal act.
5. Destierro. The penalty of banishing a person from the place where he committed a crime,
prohibiting him to get near or enter the 25 kilometer perimeter.
Justification of Punishment
1. Retribution - Derive from a Latin word meaning “to pay back” in retaliation
for wrongdoing, societies seek to punish individuals who violate the rules. The
punishment should be provided by the state whose sanction is violated, to afford the
society or the individual the opportunity of imposing upon the offender suitable
punishment as might be enforced. Offender should be punished because they deserve
it.
2. Expiation or Atonement - It is punishment in the form of group vengeance
where the purpose is to appease the offended public or group.
3. Deterrence - Punishment gives lesson to the offender by showing to others
what would happen to them if they violate the law. a. Specific b. General
4. Incapacitation and Protection - The public will be protected if the offender
has being held in conditioning where he cannot harm others especially the public.
5. Reformation or Rehabilitation - It is the most valuable ideological
justification for punishment, for it alone promotes the humanizing belief in the nation
that offenders can be saved and not simply punished. It is establishment of the
usefulness and responsibility of the offender. Society’s interest can be better served by
helping the prisoner to became law abiding citizen and productive upon his return to
the community by requiring him to undergo intensive program of rehabilitation in
prison. Prison attempts to rehabilitate inmates so they will avoid future criminal
behavior.

Juridical Conditions of Penalty

1. Productive of Suffering - The person is able to suffer the consequences of his
action/s or violations without however affecting the integrity of the human
personality.
2. Commensurate with the Offense - Different crimes must be punished with
different penalties (Art. 25, RPC).
3. Personal- The guilty one must be the one to be punish, no proxy.
4. Legal - The consequence must be in accordance with the law.
5. Equal. Punishment must be equal to all person.
6. Certain. No one must escape its effect
7. Correctional - Changes the attitude of offenders and become a law abiding
citizen.

Penalties as to Gravity
a. Life Imprisonment
b. Reclusion Perpetua- 20 years to 40 years imprisonment.
c. Reclusion Temporal- 12 years and 1 day to 20 years
d. Prision Mayor- 6 years and 1 day to 12 years
e. Prison Correctional- 6 months and 1 day to 6 years
f. Arresto Mayor- 1 month and 1 day to 6 months g.
g. Arresto Menor- 1 day to 30 days h.
h. Bond to keep the Peace- discretionary on the part of the court.
i. Destierro