Chapter 12: Procedures for Capital Cases – Warning, Witness Examination, and Execution

Overview

This section explains how capital cases are judged: the requirement for witness recognition and warning, the process of intimidating and examining witnesses, the deliberation and verdict procedure, and rules for carrying out execution without delay.

Summary of Each Numbered Halacha

Halacha 1 – Initial Witness Examination

When witnesses testify that they saw the accused commit a transgression, the court asks:

• Do you recognize him?
• Did you warn him?
  If they did not recognize him, were unsure, or did not warn him, the accused is acquitted.

Halacha 2 – Requirement and Nature of Warning

Both scholars and commoners require a warning to distinguish between intentional and unintentional sin.

• Warning must state: “Desist… this is forbidden and punishable by death or lashes.”
• If he stops, remains silent, or nods, he is exempt.
• Even saying “I know” is insufficient; he must say: “I act knowing I will die for this.”
• The act must follow immediately after the warning (within kedei dibur).
• Warning may come from a witness or any person—even a woman, servant, or himself—and is valid even if only heard, not seen.

Halacha 3 – Intimidating and Examining Witnesses

If witnesses confirm recognition and warning, the court warns them:

• Do not testify based on assumption or hearsay.
• Understand the gravity: financial cases involve money; capital cases involve blood and future generations.

• “Whoever destroys one soul is as if he destroyed an entire world; whoever saves one soul is as if he saved an entire world.”
• Witnesses are cross-examined individually—even if there are 100 witnesses.
• If testimony aligns, judgment begins with arguments for acquittal.
• If no acquittal is found, the accused is held overnight while judges review the case in pairs, fasting and avoiding wine.
• Next day, judges reaffirm or change their votes. If conviction stands, execution follows immediately outside the court, at a distance (approx. six mil).

Halacha 4 – No Delay After Conviction

Once convicted, execution occurs the same day.

• If the woman is pregnant, they do not wait for birth; they strike the womb so the fetus dies first.
• If she is in labor, they wait until birth.
• Hair of an executed woman may be used.

Halacha 5 – Sacrificial Offering Before Execution

• If the condemned person’s offering was already slaughtered, execution waits until its blood is sprinkled.
  If the offering was not slaughtered, execution is not delayed.