RP death convict wins last-minute reprieve

RP death convict wins last-minute reprieve

MANILA (AFP): In a dramatic decision on Monday just three
hours before a convicted rapist was due to be put to death, the
Philippine Supreme Court granted him an almost six-month stay of
execution.

The court order suspended the execution of Leo Echegaray until
after June 15 in response to a petition filed by his lawyer last
week asking for more time while legislators debate the death
penalty.

The 11th-hour decision suspended what would have been the
country's first execution in 22 years. It also reopened the
fierce debate on capital punishment with President Joseph Estrada
angrily assailing the court's decision.

Echegaray, 38, a decorator, had already been moved before dawn
on Monday from the maximum security "death row" of the national
penitentiary to a holding area directly adjoining the death
chamber where he was due to receive a lethal injection at 3:00 pm
(2 p.m. Jakarta time).

He had been sentenced to death in 1994 for raping his then 11-
year-old daughter.

Prison superintendent Venancio Tesoro said prison chaplain
Father Roberto Olaguer gave Echegaray the news of his reprieve as
the condemned man was about to eat his last meal of dried fish
and sardines.

Echegaray had been unable to touch his food but when he got
the news, he embraced Father Olaguer and then invited the four
relatives who were due to witness his death-- his new wife, his
sister and two aunts-- into the holding area to share his meal.

The court order was also received with applause and cries of
"Praise the Lord" by about 100 death penalty opponents and
relatives of death row convicts who had been holding vigil for
Echegaray on prison grounds since Sunday.

However, Estrada, who has refused to commute Echegaray's death
sentence, hit out at the court order, saying "it does not serve
the interests of the Supreme Court to change rules... so late in
the day."

He added the judiciary did not have the power to suspend laws
and said the court's order was "purely political and not a legal
act." Estrada also vowed to veto any lifting of the death
penalty.

"Today is a sad day for law enforcement and the rule of law,"
Estrada added.

In a show of support for the death penalty, Estrada scheduled
an impromptu meeting with Echegaray's victim. The girl,
identified only as "Baby", now aged 15, had earlier called for
Echegaray's death and criticized opponents of the death penalty
for trying to prevent his execution.

Justice Secretary Serafin Cuevas said he had ordered a motion
of reconsideration to be filed to the Supreme Court asking it to
reverse its order suspending the execution or at least to shorten
the period covered.

Echegaray's lawyer, Theodore Te, a member of a human rights
lawyers' group campaigning against the death penalty, said "at
least, they gave a fighting chance to Echegaray."

"We have our work cut out for us. We will work to convince the
congressmen to do away with the death penalty," said Te, adding
that "by all means, this is not finished but this is the
important first step in the campaign against the death penalty."

In its order, the Supreme Court warned that it would not
entertain any more petitions for a postponement of the execution
after June 15.

The last execution in the Philippines was in 1976.

The death penalty was abolished under a new constitution in
1987 but it was restored in 1994 amid popular clamor after a
spate of spectacular crimes.

Its scope was even widened to include such rimes as child
rape, kidnapping, murder and possession of drugs down to 750
grams of marijuana.

Since then, 864 people have been placed on death row.

The death penalty remains widely popular in this country
although the Roman Catholic church, to which most Filipinos
belong, has consistently campaigned against it.