diff -r 2f5e556a6037 -r ae5c415036b0 hotspot/src/share/vm/prims/jvmtiEnv.cpp
--- a/hotspot/src/share/vm/prims/jvmtiEnv.cpp	Wed Feb 15 22:19:13 2017 -0500
+++ b/hotspot/src/share/vm/prims/jvmtiEnv.cpp	Thu Feb 16 10:41:19 2017 -0800
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright (c) 2003, 2017, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
+ * Copyright (c) 2003, 2016, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
  * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
  *
  * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
@@ -1796,13 +1796,6 @@
     }
   }
 
-  if (initial_object != NULL) {
-    oop init_obj = JNIHandles::resolve_external_guard(initial_object);
-    if (init_obj == NULL) {
-      return JVMTI_ERROR_INVALID_OBJECT;
-    }
-  }
-
   Thread *thread = Thread::current();
   HandleMark hm(thread);
   KlassHandle kh (thread, k_oop);