Just as [with] two, [if] one of them is found [to be] a kinsman or a disqualified [witness], their testimony is void, so too [with] three, [if] one of them is found [to be] a kinsman or a disqualified [witness], their testimony is void. How do we know that [this is so] even [for] a hundred? To teach [this] it states: witnesses. Said R' Yose: In regard to what is this said? In regard to capital cases; but in regard to civil cases, the testimony is estab-lished through the remaining [witnesses]. Rabbi says: Both in civil cases and in capital cases, but only if they warned them. But if they did not warn them —- what should two brothers do who saw someone commit a murder?

[If] two saw him from this window, and two saw him from that window, and one in the middle warned him —- if some of them saw each other, then they are one set of witnesses; if not, they are two sets of witnesses. Therefore, if one of them is found to be zomemim, both he and they are executed, and the second [set] is exempt. R' Yose says: They are not executed unless his two witnesses warn him, as it is said (Deut. 17:6): By the testimony of two witnesses. Another explanation: By the testimony of two witnesses —- that a sanhedrin should not hear [testimony] from the mouth of an interpreter.

[If] one was sentenced and fled, and then came before that very same court, they do not overturn his sentence. Wherever two stand up and declare, “We testify concerning so-and-so that he was sentenced in so-and-so's court, and so-and-so and so-and-so were his witnesses,” he is executed. A sanhedrin functions both in the Holy Land and outside the Holy Land. A sanhedrin that executes once in a septenary is called a destroyer. R' Elazar ben Azariah says: Once in seventy years. R' Tarfon and R' Akiva say: Had we been on a san-hedrin, a person would never have been executed. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: They too would have increased [the number of] murderers in Israel.

These are the ones who are exiled: One who kills a person inadvertently. [If] he was pushing out with a roller, and it fell upon him and killed him; [or if] he was letting down a cask, and it fell upon him and killed him; [or if] he was descending a ladder, and he fell upon him and killed him —- he is exiled. But if he was drawing back the roller, and it fell upon him and killed him; [or if] he was hoisting up the cask and the rope broke, and it fell upon him and killed him; [or if] he was ascending the ladder, and he fell upon him and killed him —- he is not exiled. This is the rule: For [any death which occurs] in the course of descent, he is exiled; but for [one which occurs] not in the course of descent, he is not exiled.  Should the iron fly off its handle and kill —- Rabbi says: He is not exiled; but the Sages say: He is exiled. From the tree that is being chopped —- Rabbi says: He is exiled; but the Sages say: He is not exiled.