Once the case has been decided, they take him out to stone him. The stoning place was outside the court [area], as it is stat-ed: Take out the blasphemer. One [man] stands at the courthouse door with flags in his hand, and [another] man sits astride a horse at a distance from him within his sight. [If] someone says, “I have grounds for his acquittal,” that one waves the flags and the horse runs and halts him. Even if he says, “I have grounds for my own acquittal,” they return him, even four or five times, as long as there is substance to his words. [If] they found an argument for his acquittal, they acquit him; if not, he goes out to be stoned. A proclamation goes out before him: So-and-so the son of so-and-so is going out to be stoned be-cause he transgressed such-and-such a prohibition, and so-and-so and so-and-so are his witnesses. Whoever knows any grounds for his acquittal should come forward and present them.