Criminal Procedure in Jewish Courts. favor of the defendant. Should they, how ever, all remain determined in their decisions, ihe court adjourned and the prisoner was discharged. After the .deliberations and the counting of the votes, the verdict was pronounced by the chief of the Sanhedrin in the presence of the accused. If the verdict was for acquittal he was at once discharged, if for conviction, he was immediately led to execution. A verdict for acquittal could under no circumstances be reversed, while one for conviction might be reversed by the same court. The execution took place before sunset of the day on which sentence was pronounced. It was considered unnecessary torture to keep the culprit in prison when there was no more hope for his release. The place of execution was at a considerable distance from the court-room, usually outside of the city limits. The judges remained in their seats, still thinking over the case, endeavor ing to find some argument by which the con vict might be saved. A flag-bearer was stationed at the gate, and at some distance from him was a horseman, ready at any sig nal from the flag-bearer to stop the execu tion. The convict was then led forth from the court-house, accompanied by two schol ars, and a herald, marching in front of them, loudly proclaiming the name of the convict, his crime, when and where committed, the names of the witnesses, concluding with the remark that any one who knew aught in favor of the criminal should come forth and testify before the court. If any favorable testimony was produced, or if any of the judges who were still sitting in the court room discovered an error in the judgment, the flag-bearer .was ordered to give the sig nal and the horseman hastened to bring the
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convict before the court, and a new trial was commenced. Even if the convict himself wished to return to the court, claiming to have bethought himself of an argument in his defence, without asking him for the argu ment, the two scholars conducted him back to the court. A second time he was per mitted to come; back, but the third time he was permitted to return only if the two scholars who accompanied him considered his arguments to be of some weight. When they arrived within ten cubits of the place of execution, the convict was exhorted to make a confession of his sins (Vidui). If he was an ignorant man and did not know how to confess, he was told to repeat the fol lowing short formula: "May my death be an atonement for all my sins." A cup of wine mixed with olibanum, usually prepared by the noble women of Jerusalem, was then administered to him, which was intended to stupefy him and make him unconscious of the pain and shame that awaited him. When at a distance of four cubits from the scaffold, he was stripped of almost all his clothes (a woman was executed in her shirt), and was thus led to execution. The witnesses who caused the execution were also the execu tioners (Deut. XVII. 7.) The body of the convict was buried soon after the execution (Deut. XXI. 23.) It was not interred in the family burial-ground, but in a cemetery especially prepared for that purpose. The relatives wore no sign of mourning, and manifested their resignation to the decree of justice by cordially greeting the judges and the witnesses. The property of the executed criminal was not confiscated, and all the laws of heredity were applicable here as elsewhere.
