The Philippines orders release after six years for 2.70 grams of marijuana

The Philippine Supreme Court ordered David Cruz released in January 2000 after he had spent six years and three months in prison for selling 2.70 grams of marijuana.^[1] His original life sentence had outlasted a change in the law: the applicable reduced penalty had a six-year ceiling.^[1]

A life sentence survived a failed appeal

Cruz had been convicted in 1993 for a sale alleged to have taken place in April 1992.^[1] He appealed, but his lawyer repeatedly failed to file the required brief.^[1] The Court of Appeals ultimately dismissed the appeal as abandoned.^[1]

By then, the 1993 drug-law amendment and the Supreme Court’s Simon ruling had introduced a route to a much shorter sentence for his quantity of marijuana.^[1][2] A missed filing had left the original life sentence in place while he remained in the national penitentiary.^[1]

The lower penalty applied to old offences

The Simon decision held that the favourable parts of the amendment applied retrospectively.^[2] It divided marijuana below the 750-gram capital threshold into three lower bands.^[2] Amounts below 250 grams belonged to prision correccional, whose statutory range was six months and one day to six years.^[1][2]

Cruz’s 2.70 grams fell within that lowest band.^[1] By the time the Supreme Court decided his case, he had already served longer than its maximum.^[1] The Solicitor General acknowledged that his continued detention had become unlawful.^[1]

His mother sought an order for release

Cruz’s mother, Maria, sought help from the University of the Philippines College of Law’s legal-aid office in 1998.^[1] She petitioned for habeas corpus, asking the courts to examine the legal basis for keeping her son imprisoned.^[1]

The Supreme Court upheld the dismissal of his abandoned appeal and refused a new trial, but granted the separate habeas corpus petition.^[1] It directed the prison authorities to release him immediately unless another lawful ground required his detention.^[1] It also ordered his former lawyer to explain the failure to file the appeal brief.^[1]

The case showed what retrospective relief could mean

Simon had identified habeas corpus as a way for people already serving final sentences to obtain the benefit of the reduced penalties.^[2] Cruz’s release gave that rule a concrete result: the older life sentence no longer justified keeping him in custody.^[1]

The 2002 drug law subsequently replaced the earlier statute and made unauthorised marijuana sales punishable by life imprisonment to death regardless of quantity.^[3] Cruz’s case belongs to the intervening period when the amount involved could substantially reduce a seller’s sentence in the Philippines.^[1][3]