Anything under the Sun
Assassination of the century (1)
Very few know that 100 years ago, the Supreme Court promulgated one of its first decisions (if not the very first) imposing death penalty. Still very few know that the crime was committed in Iloilo City. According to the old folks, the accused was hanged near the Forbes Bridge.
The case is entitled the United States vs. Joaquin Gil (GR No. 4704, April 26, 1909). The decision was penned by Justice Carson and concurred in by Chief Justice Cayetano Arellano and Justices Torre, Johnson and Willard.
The decision followed a reverse format, thus: the indictment, followed immediately by the version of the accused, then the version of the prosecution and lastly, the court analysis of the evidence.
Hereunder are direct quotations from the decision:
1) The indictment — “The information filed in this case charges the accused, Joaquin Gil, with the crime of assassination, in that on the 27th day of December 1907, in the city of Iloilo, he entered the office of Benito Lopez, governor of the province of Iloilo, and then and there treacherously (con alevosia) and with deliberate premeditation fired four shots from a loaded revolver at the said Governor Benito Lopez, who was at the time engaged in the execution of the duties of his office as governor, and inflicted upon him four wounds from the effects of one or all of which he died on the 20th day of January 1908.”
“It was conclusively proven that on the morning of the 27th of December 1907, the accused entered the office of Governor Lopez, who was at that time alone in his office, engaged in the transaction of public business; that a short time thereafter four pistol shots were fired in the office; that a few moments later Lopez ran from the room in a wounded condition, pursued by the accused with a smoking revolver in his hand, and that Lopez died 24 days later as a result of the wounds received on that occasion.”
2) Version of the accused — “Gil, the accused, testifying in his own behalf, stated that he went to the government building on the morning in question for the purpose of taking out a license to keep in his possession a revolver; that learning that the governor was unoccupied he entered his office, took a few steps toward the governor who was seated at his roll-top desk, at the same time drawing the revolver from its holster, and with the pistol lying in his outstretched hand addressed to the governor the question: “May I?” (Se puede?); that the governor glanced up at him, with a “fierce” look on his face, and resumed his work at his desk; that nothing more was said or than for a considerable space of time, not less than five minutes, when the governor raised his head and said: “What do you want?” that he (Gil) then approached the desk where the governor was seated and told him that he had come to ask for the favor of a license for the revolver, that the governor forthwith, and without the slightest provocation on Gil’s part, answered in an insulting manner, upbraiding Gil for his temerity in seeking a favor of a man whom he had denounced to higher authority, and wound up his insulting and abusive tirade by calling Gil an “infeliz” (miserable creature) or as translated by counsel for defense “coward” and an “hijo de puta” (son of a whore); that he (Gil) then fell into a fit of ungovernable rage, which was the more intense because it is true that he was born out of lawful wedlock, and the governor having reached for the revolver, a struggle ensued during which the shots were fired, but that he (Gil) had so completely lost control of himself and was so filled with rage and indignation by the aspersions on his own and his mother’s name and reputation, that he could not remember whether he himself had fired the shots which wounded the governor, or whether the pistol had been discharged accidentally in the course of the struggle for its possession. (To be continued tomorrow)