JNI Delete* and Release* _are_ allowed while an exception is pending.

See "Exceptions" in our own documentation:
http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=platform/dalvik.git;a=blob_plain;f=docs/jni-tips.html;hb=HEAD

This is also true of the RI, though the spec sometimes implies otherwise.
Here's the canonical reference:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jni/html/design.html#2193
diff --git a/libcore/xml/src/main/native/org_apache_harmony_xml_ExpatParser.cpp b/libcore/xml/src/main/native/org_apache_harmony_xml_ExpatParser.cpp
index 15f1d28..9192b1a 100644
--- a/libcore/xml/src/main/native/org_apache_harmony_xml_ExpatParser.cpp
+++ b/libcore/xml/src/main/native/org_apache_harmony_xml_ExpatParser.cpp
@@ -790,18 +790,7 @@
     env->CallVoidMethod(javaParser, processingInstructionMethod, javaTarget,
         javaInstructionData);
 
-    // We have to temporarily clear an exception before we can release local
-    // references.
-    jthrowable exception = env->ExceptionOccurred();
-    if (exception != NULL) {
-        env->ExceptionClear();
-    }
-
     env->DeleteLocalRef(javaInstructionData);
-
-    if (exception != NULL) {
-        env->Throw(exception);
-    }
 }
 
 /**
@@ -998,16 +987,7 @@
         jniThrowExpatException(env, XML_GetErrorCode(parser));
     }
 
-    // We have to temporarily clear an exception before we can release local
-    // references.
-    jthrowable exception = env->ExceptionOccurred();
-    if (exception) {
-        env->ExceptionClear();
-        env->ReleaseStringChars(xml, characters);
-        env->Throw(exception);
-    } else {
-        env->ReleaseStringChars(xml, characters);
-    }
+    env->ReleaseStringChars(xml, characters);
 
     context->object = NULL;
     context->env = NULL;
@@ -1036,16 +1016,7 @@
         jniThrowExpatException(env, XML_GetErrorCode(parser));
     }
 
-    // We have to temporarily clear an exception before we can release local
-    // references.
-    jthrowable exception = env->ExceptionOccurred();
-    if (exception) {
-        env->ExceptionClear();
-        env->ReleaseCharArrayElements(xml, characters, JNI_ABORT);
-        env->Throw(exception);
-    } else {
-        env->ReleaseCharArrayElements(xml, characters, JNI_ABORT);
-    }
+    env->ReleaseCharArrayElements(xml, characters, JNI_ABORT);
 
     context->object = NULL;
     context->env = NULL;
@@ -1074,16 +1045,7 @@
         jniThrowExpatException(env, XML_GetErrorCode(parser));
     }
 
-    // We have to temporarily clear an exception before we can release local
-    // references.
-    jthrowable exception = env->ExceptionOccurred();
-    if (exception) {
-        env->ExceptionClear();
-        env->ReleaseByteArrayElements(xml, bytes, JNI_ABORT);
-        env->Throw(exception);
-    } else {
-        env->ReleaseByteArrayElements(xml, bytes, JNI_ABORT);
-    }
+    env->ReleaseByteArrayElements(xml, bytes, JNI_ABORT);
 
     context->object = NULL;
     context->env = NULL;