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Catholic World News News Feature

Philippines Court Rejects Execution Appeal January 26, 1999

MANILA (CWNews.com) - The Philippines' Supreme Court on Tuesday removed the final avenue of appeal for a convicted child rapist who faces the death penalty as the first prisoner to be executed in the country since 1976.

Leo Echegaray, 38, was convicted in 1994 of raping his 10-year-old stepdaughter and sentenced to die. Opponents of the death penalty in this mainly Catholic Asian country delayed the execution through legal and judicial avenues, but the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the punishment after a Congressional review. Echegaray is now scheduled to die by lethal injection on February 5.

The court rejected a final appeal by Echegaray's lawyer that the Congress may again reconsider capital punishment, which could warrant a stay of the execution. The court said on Tuesday that "no substantial arguments were presented to warrant the reversal" of a decision on January 19 to go ahead with the execution. The condemned's only hope now rests with President Joseph Estrada who could issue a pardon, but Estrada has made clear that he supports the death penalty.

The country's Catholic bishops, including Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila, as well as Pope John Paul II, have called for a rejection of capital punishment. The Philippines abolished capital punishment in 1987 but reintroduced it in 1994 to deal with a surge in violent crime. More than 850 people are on death row, but Echegaray's sentence was the first to be upheld by the Supreme Court.