SC justices not liable for Echegaray execution - DoJ chief

The Supreme Court justices who affirmed the imposition of the capital punishment on Leo Echegaray have no criminal liability, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said Thursday. At a news forum in Manila, Gonzalez said the family of Echregaray cannot file any criminal charges against the concerned justices for alleged judicial error on the execution of the rape convict. Echegaray was the first Filipino executed in 1999 following the re-imposition of the death penalty in 1993. Gonzalez said what the Echegaray family can do to is to file a petition for compensation before the Board of Claims although victims of injustice by the court are only entitled to a maximum of P20,000 under the law. “Just claims. You cannot sue the state. Just go to the Board of Claims. Even before the case of Echegaray decision, we already have a law on that…that is why we have the Board of Claims. Persons who are victims of injustice, like those who are unjustly detained, can claim compensation amounting to a maximum of P20,000," Gonzalez said. He then described Senator Aquilino Pimentel’s proposed bill allowing the Echegaray family be compensated with P10 million as a “big amount that has to be passed by Congress." Earlier, Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban admitted that the High Court erred in imposing the death penalty on Echegaray because it was not proven in court that he was the father of the victim. He said Echegaray should have been meted life imprisonment because Republic Act 7659 or the Death Penalty Law prescribes the capital punishment for rape perpetrated by the “common law spouse of the parent of the victim," a qualifying circumstance which was not alleged in the complaint. Gonzalez said he does not believe that Panganiban’s admission of the SC’s alleged “judicial error" on Echegaray’s case has affected the integrity of the High Tribunal as an institution. He added that Panganiban’s statement is not binding to the court because it was the personal opinion of the chief justice who was among the justices who dissented on the matter of giving Echegaray the lethal injection. - GMANews.TV