So to wash his honor, he killed her. The patriarchal concept is very strong. Justice is limited. A man kills his wife and goes back on the street. He estimates that in the country's interior the honor defense is still successful 80 percent of the time.
Society talks louder than the courts.
He was certain that the high court's decision would have no impact on the jury tribunal and, as it turned out, rightly expected that the honor defense would be upheld by the jury when the case was re-tried in the lower court in August 1991. The argument that juries, not judges, are responsible for the continued success of the honor defense has some basis in Brazilian law. In all criminal and civil cases, except homicide, the judge is the sole adjudicator. In homicide cases, however, the popular jury assumes the responsibility for deciding cases, and the judge has remarkably little control over the legal or factual basis for its verdict. Under Article 483 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the judge cannot interfere in the jury's decision in any way and is largely restricted to posing the questions which the jury will answer in deciding the case.