Court overturns death penalty in Irbid murder case

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has overturned a June 2022 death sentence ruling passed against a street vendor who robbed and murdered a 74-year-old woman in Irbid in August 2020.

The court had declared the defendant, who knew the victim in the past because she was one of his customers, guilty of beating her to death and robbing her on August 14.

The court handed the defendant the death penalty.

Court papers said the victim, who lived alone, and the defendant knew each other because she was a regular customer and would often buy vegetables from him.

“The victim would often give the defendant money to help him financially,” the court papers said.

On the day of the murder, the defendant entered the victim’s home around 2am with the intent of robbing her, the court papers said.

“The victim beat up the woman on her face and head, took her jewellery, locked the door and left,” the court said.

The following day, the court maintained, the defendant “sold part of the stolen jewellery at a gold shop and a bracelet to one of his acquaintances”.

The following day, the victim’s body was discovered, and police were called in by her family, according to the court papers.

Investigators took swabs from the handle of the main door of the victim’s house and later linked the DNA to the defendant, the court added. 

The defence lawyer contested the verdict at a higher court arguing that the court relied on a forensic report “when implicating my client but I did not get the chance to question the pathologist who prepared the report”.

“The government pathologist who prepared the report was travelling and the court decided to read his report in court instead of summoning him for questioning once he was back in town,” the defence lawyer argued.

Meanwhile, the Criminal Court’s general attorney asked the Court of Cassation to uphold the ruling. 

The higher court decided to overturn the verdict to “allow the defence team the chance to cross-examine the forensic expert who prepared the homicide report”.    

“The Criminal Court should summon the pathologist who prepared the report to allow the defence the chance to cross-examine him before issuing its final ruling,” the Court of Cassation ruled.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mahmoud Ebtoush, Majid Azab, Hayel Amr, Mohammad Shreiri and Ibrahim Abu Shamma.

In the past four years, 63 people were sentenced to death in Jordan. Currently, there are 219 convicts on death row in Jordan, including 22 women, according to local activists.

Between 2006 and 2014, Jordan maintained an eight-year pause on the death penalty, which ended in December 2014 when authorities executed 11 individuals for various crimes.

Article 93 of the Constitution reads that “no death sentence may be carried out unless ratified by the King. Every such sentence shall be submitted to him by the Council of Ministers along with the council’s view on it.