Concept and Scope
Total extinction of criminal liability is the complete termination of the State's right to impose, enforce, or continue enforcing the criminal penalty for a particular offense. It concerns criminal liability, not the historical fact that an act occurred and not every civil, administrative, or disciplinary consequence that may arise from the same act.
The Revised Penal Code treats total extinction separately from partial extinction. Total extinction wipes out criminal liability for the offense or the enforceability of the penalty; partial extinction merely reduces, modifies, or shortens the penalty while criminal liability remains recognizable until the law deems it fully satisfied.
Article 89 enumerates the principal causes of total extinction: death of the convict, service of sentence, amnesty, absolute pardon, prescription of the crime, prescription of the penalty, and marriage between the offender and the offended party in the limited cases where present law gives that marriage an extinguishing effect.
The causes do not operate in the same way. Some prevent further prosecution before judgment; some terminate the effects of a final conviction; some are personal to the accused; and some, by their nature or by express law, may benefit several participants in the same offense.
Relation to Criminal Liability
Total extinction presupposes that criminal liability has attached, has been charged, or could have been enforced, but the law later removes the penal consequence. It is therefore different from a justifying circumstance, where no crime is committed, and from an exempting circumstance, where there is a crime but no criminal liability because the actor is exempt from punishment.
It is also different from acquittal. Acquittal is a judgment that the prosecution failed to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt, or that the act or participation charged was not proven as a crime. Extinction of criminal liability may occur even when guilt was already adjudged, as in service of sentence, absolute pardon, or prescription of penalty.
The extinction must relate to the specific offense, penalty, or proceeding involved. A cause that extinguishes liability for one offense does not automatically extinguish liability for a different offense arising from the same facts, unless the operative law or the nature of the cause necessarily covers both.
Modes and Their Basic Effects
| Cause | When it principally operates | Basic effect | Important limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Death of the convict | Before or after final judgment | Extinguishes personal penalties; before final judgment, it also bars criminal adjudication | Pecuniary penalties and civil liability are treated differently depending on finality and source of obligation |
| Service of sentence | After judgment | Satisfies the penal judgment by complete legal service of the penalty | It does not erase the fact of conviction or automatically satisfy unpaid civil liability |
| Amnesty | Before or after conviction, depending on the proclamation | Obliterates the offense for persons and acts covered by the amnesty | It applies only within the terms of the amnesty and ordinarily requires compliance with its conditions for availment |
| Absolute pardon | After conviction by final judgment | Unconditionally remits the criminal penalty and the penal consequences covered by the pardon | It does not establish innocence and does not extinguish civil indemnity unless the civil obligation is independently extinguished |
| Prescription of crime | Before valid prosecution or before timely continuation of prosecution | Bars the State from prosecuting the offense after the statutory period | The applicable period depends on the penalty, the nature of the offense, and any special prescriptive statute |
| Prescription of penalty | After final judgment and evasion of service | Bars enforcement of the final penalty after the statutory period | The period does not run in favor of one who has not evaded service or when the law interrupts prescription |
| Marriage of offender and offended party | Only where current law gives marriage that effect | Extinguishes the criminal action or remits the penalty in the covered private-offense settings | It is not a general mode of compromise and does not apply to offenses where the statutory basis has been repealed or displaced |
Pre-Judgment and Post-Judgment Extinction
Before final judgment, extinction usually affects the criminal action itself. Prescription of the crime bars prosecution because the State slept on its right to proceed within the period fixed by law. Death of the accused before final judgment prevents a final determination of criminal liability and abates the penal action. Amnesty, when applicable before conviction, removes the penal character of the covered act for the beneficiary.
After final judgment, extinction usually affects enforcement of the penalty. Service of sentence satisfies the judgment. Absolute pardon remits the punishment by executive clemency. Prescription of penalty bars enforcement after the convict evades service for the period fixed by law. Death after final judgment extinguishes personal penalties because imprisonment, disqualification, and other personal punishments can no longer be carried out.
Finality is crucial for death and pardon. Death before final judgment prevents criminal liability from becoming final and affects civil liability based solely on the offense. Absolute pardon, by constitutional design, is available only after conviction by final judgment.
Effect on Civil Liability
Extinction of criminal liability does not, by itself, extinguish civil liability. The civil obligation arising from the offense is governed by the Civil Code rules on extinction of obligations and by the specific criminal-law rules on civil liability.
Article 113 reflects the general rule that an offender remains obliged to satisfy civil liability even if the penalty is not served or is no longer enforced because of amnesty, pardon, commutation, or another cause. Thus, the penal consequence may disappear while restitution, reparation, indemnification, or damages remain enforceable if they have an independent legal basis or have been validly adjudged.
Death before final judgment is the main qualification. Because there is no final criminal adjudication, criminal liability is extinguished and civil liability based solely on the offense is not enforceable through the criminal case. However, civil claims based on sources other than the delict, such as contract, quasi-contract, quasi-delict, or law, may still be pursued against the estate in the proper proceeding.
Death after final judgment has a narrower effect. Personal penalties end, but pecuniary liabilities that have become final may be enforced according to the rules on claims against the estate. The distinction rests on finality: before final judgment, the penal and delictual adjudication has not yet become fixed; after final judgment, the monetary consequences have ripened into enforceable obligations.
Death of the Convict
Death extinguishes criminal liability because criminal punishment is personal. Imprisonment, arrest, disqualification, suspension, and other personal penalties cannot be imposed on the estate or transferred to heirs.
If death occurs before final judgment, the criminal action is extinguished. The accused can no longer be convicted, and no penal or civil liability based solely on the charged offense can be imposed in that criminal case.
If death occurs after final judgment, personal penalties are extinguished, but pecuniary penalties are extinguished only when the death occurred before final judgment. Once the judgment is final, fines, costs, and adjudged civil liability may survive as monetary claims, subject to the governing procedural rules.
Service of Sentence
Service of sentence extinguishes criminal liability because the penalty imposed by final judgment has been fully satisfied. The State has received the punishment the law authorized for the offense, whether through actual confinement, credited preventive imprisonment, lawful allowances, payment of fines, or completion of other penal components required by the judgment.
The service must be legally complete. If the judgment imposes several penalties, accessory penalties, subsidiary imprisonment, or financial penalties, the penal consequences are extinguished only to the extent that the law regards them as served, satisfied, remitted, or otherwise terminated.
Service of sentence does not rewrite the past. The conviction may remain relevant when a later law makes the fact of conviction material, as in rules on recidivism, habitual delinquency, disqualification, or other consequences attached by law. What is extinguished is the criminal liability enforceable under the served judgment.
Amnesty
Amnesty is an act of sovereign grace, usually addressed to a class of persons or a class of offenses, and commonly used for political offenses or acts connected with public disorder. Under the Constitution, it is granted by the President with the concurrence of a majority of all Members of Congress.
Amnesty looks backward and removes the penal character of the covered act for the persons who validly avail of it. It is broader than a mere remission of punishment because it treats the offense itself as obliterated for the beneficiary within the terms of the amnesty.
The coverage of amnesty depends on the proclamation and implementing rules. A person invoking amnesty must fall within the covered class, must have committed a covered act, and must comply with any admission, application, surrender, or other condition required for entitlement.
Because amnesty extinguishes criminal liability by operation of a public act, it may affect pending cases, final convictions, or unexecuted penalties if the amnesty so provides. It does not automatically destroy private civil claims unless the law governing the civil obligation also extinguishes them.
Absolute Pardon
Absolute pardon is an unconditional act of executive clemency that remits the penalty after conviction by final judgment. It is personal to the offender pardoned and operates according to its terms.
An absolute pardon totally extinguishes criminal liability because no condition remains to be performed by the convict. This distinguishes it from conditional pardon, which depends on compliance with imposed conditions and is treated as a mode of partial extinction until its conditions and legal effects have fully operated.
Pardon does not amount to an acquittal. It does not declare that the offender did not commit the crime; it removes the penal consequences that the executive clemency covers. It also does not automatically restore a public office forfeited by conviction, and the restoration of political or civil rights depends on the terms of the pardon and the governing law.
Pardon does not extinguish civil indemnity. The offended party's private claim is not a penalty belonging to the State, so it is not remitted by executive clemency unless the civil obligation is separately extinguished under civil law.
Prescription of Crime
Prescription of crime extinguishes criminal liability by barring prosecution after the lapse of the period fixed by law. It rests on the policy that the State must prosecute offenses within a definite time, while evidence is reasonably available and before prolonged inaction makes prosecution unjust.
The prescriptive period generally depends on the penalty attached to the offense under the Revised Penal Code. For offenses punished by special laws, a special prescriptive statute or the special law itself may govern. The classification of the offense and the penalty prescribed by law therefore control the computation.
Prescription of crime concerns the State's power to bring or continue the criminal action. It is different from prescription of penalty, which assumes that conviction is already final and only enforcement of the sentence remains.
The running, interruption, and resumption of the prescriptive period are governed by the rules applicable to the offense. In general, prescription is tied to discovery of the offense and is interrupted by the institution of proceedings in the manner recognized by law.
Prescription of Penalty
Prescription of penalty extinguishes criminal liability after final judgment when the penalty has not been enforced within the period fixed by law. It presupposes a valid final conviction and an enforceable sentence.
The period begins when the convict evades service of sentence. A person who has not yet begun evading service cannot claim that the penalty has prescribed merely because time passed after judgment.
The running of prescription of penalty is interrupted when the convict gives himself up, is captured, goes to a foreign country with which the Philippines has no extradition treaty, or commits another crime before the period expires. These interruptions reflect that prescription favors repose, not continued defiance of the judgment.
Once the penalty prescribes, the State loses the right to enforce that penalty. The conviction remains a historical fact, but the penal sanction can no longer be executed.
Marriage Between the Offender and the Offended Party
Marriage extinguishes criminal liability only in the narrow cases where current law expressly gives it that effect. It is not a general rule that private forgiveness, settlement, cohabitation, or subsequent marriage can erase a crime.
The traditional rule applies to specified offenses historically treated as private or chastity-related, where a valid marriage between the offender and the offended party extinguishes the criminal action or remits the penalty already imposed. The effect may extend to co-principals, accomplices, and accessories only when the governing provision so states.
The rule must be applied with present statutory changes. Rape is now a crime against persons, and the former rules allowing pardon, forgiveness, or marriage to extinguish rape liability have been removed from current law. Marriage also cannot validate a void union, defeat child-protection policies, or extinguish liability for offenses outside the specific statutory coverage.
Personal and Collective Operation
Some causes are personal. Death extinguishes only the liability of the person who died. Absolute pardon benefits only the person pardoned. Service of sentence extinguishes only the liability satisfied by that convict's service.
Some causes may operate more broadly. Prescription of the crime bars prosecution of the offense itself after the period lapses, so its effect is not confined to one accused if the same time-bar applies. Amnesty may cover a class of persons and acts. Marriage may benefit other participants only when the specific law gives that extended effect.
The nature of the cause determines its reach. A personal clemency cannot be claimed by another accused; a statutory time-bar or class amnesty may defeat the action more generally.
Procedural Consequences
When a cause of total extinction appears before conviction, it may justify dismissal of the criminal action, quashal where the ground is properly raised, or termination of proceedings because no enforceable criminal liability can result.
When the cause appears after final judgment, the proper consequence is termination of enforcement, recognition of satisfaction, or entry of the extinguishing clemency or prescription in the records of the case. The remedy depends on whether the issue is factual, such as death or service, legal, such as prescription, or executive in character, such as pardon or amnesty.
Total extinction must be proved by the party invoking it when it depends on facts not already in the record, such as the date of death, the terms and acceptance of clemency, complete service of sentence, or the dates material to prescription. Once established, it deprives the State of any remaining penal claim for the offense or penalty covered.