Toffoli votes against thesis of legitimate defense of honor in case of femicide

The Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Dias Toffoli voted this Thursday (29) for the unconstitutionality of the use of the thesis of legitimate defense of honor to justify the acquittal of those convicted of femicide. The Court judges an action filed by the PDT in 2021 to prevent the acquittal of men accused of murder against women based on the argument that the crime would have been committed for emotional reasons, such as marital betrayal, for example.

In the same year, the STF prohibited the use of the thesis. The understanding is in force, but the case is judged definitively by the Court, informed Agência Brasil. For Toffoli, who is the case’s rapporteur, accepting the argument to justify acquittal violates the right to gender equality and promotes violence against women.

In the minister’s understanding, the thesis cannot be used as a defense argument by the defendant’s lawyers or to justify acquittal by the Jury Court, under penalty of annulment.

“The so-called defense of honor corresponds, in reality, to a hateful, inhuman and cruel argumentative resource, used by the defenses of those accused of femicide or of aggression against women to impute to the victims the causes of their own deaths or injuries”, he said.

Toffoli also mentioned that the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea) recorded around 50,000 deaths of women between 2009 and 2019. After the rapporteur’s vote, the trial was suspended and will resume tomorrow (30).

During the trial, the Attorney General of the Republic, Augusto Aras, also defended the unconstitutionality of the use of the thesis as an argumentative resource by men accused of femicide. Aras said that criminal legislation provides for the protection of honor, but the measure cannot be used to justify murder.

“The thesis of the legitimate defense of honor violates the constitutional principles of conquering the dignity of the human person, protecting life and gender equality”, stated Aras.

For the Attorney General of the Union (AGU), public attorney Alessandra Lopes Pereira said that the protection of honor cannot be used as a defense thesis when it comes to issues involving the constitutional right to life. “It deals with the use of unreasonable logic, which reverses the poles of the criminal process and, in a symbolic way, includes the victim reduced to the condition of an object in the list of culprits”, she concluded.