Between the Right to Life and the Excuse of Killing in the Jordanian Penal Law

Abstract

This study deals with the excuse of killing in the crime of honor in the Jordanian Penal Code, which contravenes with the right to life recognized by the different religions and protected by national and international legislations. This study aims to identify the most important development with respect to this crime in the Jordanian Penal Code with reference to the 2001 amendments which represented the abolishment of the right to be exempted from punishment in honor crimes and its replacement with the right to a sentence reduction. This study also analyzed the legal conditions that should exist in any offender, whether male or female, to benefit from extenuating excuses in crimes of honor killings, and it concluded that the 2001 amendments had positive effects from the perspective of abolishing the exemption from punishment. Nevertheless, it failed to treat both male and female equally for the purpose of applying the provision in question in the Penal Code. A wife is under a tougher condition as she must surprise her husband committing adultery or in an unlawful bed at their home to benefit from extenuating excuses while a man can benefit from extenuating excuses if he surprises his wife committing adultery in any unlawful bed regardless of where the act of adultery was committed.