Rabbinic Halakhah in the Mishnah

4. The place of stoning was the height of two men. One of the witnesses pushed him on his hips; if he turns over on to his chest, he turns him over onto his hips. If he dies thereby, he has fulfilled his obligation. But if not, the second [witness] takes the stone and places it on his chest. If he dies thereby, he has fulfilled his obligation. But if not, his stoning is done by all Israel, as it is said: Let the hands of the witnesses be the first against him to put him to death, and the hands of the people thereafter (Deuteronomy 17:7).

All those who are stoned are hanged, the words of R. Eliezer. But the sages say: Only the blasphemer and idolater are hanged. They hang a man facing the people, but a woman facing the tree, the words of R. Eliezer. But the sages say: The man is hanged, but the woman is not hanged. R. Eliezer said to them: But didn’t Simeon ben Shetaḥ hang women in Ashkelon? They said to him: He hanged eighty women, but we do not pass judgment on two on a single day.

How do they hang him? They sink the post into the ground, and the wood comes out from it; he puts his hands around it, one on top of the other, and they hang him. R. Yosi says: The post is leaned against the wall, and they hang him on it the way the butchers do. And they untie him immediately. And if they leave him overnight, they transgress a negative commandment regarding him, as it is said: You must not let his corpse remain on the stake overnight, but must bury him the same day. For a hanged body is an affront [lit., a curse] to God (Deuteronomy 21:23), which is to say, why is this [man] hanged? Because he cursed the Name, with the result that the name of heaven is profaned.

5. R. Meir said: When a person suffers, what does the shekhinah say? If one may say so, [the shekhinah says], My head is heavy; My arm is heavy. If the Omnipresent suffers over the blood of the wicked that is spilled, how much more so over the blood of the righteous.

And not only this, but everyone who lets his dead lie overnight [before burial] transgresses a negative commandment. If one delayed it for his honor, to bring him a coffin and shrouds, one does not transgress regarding him. And they would not bury him in his ancestral grave, but rather two gravesites were prepared for the court, one for those executed by decapitation and strangulation, and one for those executed by stoning and burning.

6. When the flesh has decomposed, they gather the bones and bury them in their place. And the relatives come and ask after the welfare of the judges and the welfare of the witnesses, as if to say that we have nothing against you in our hearts and that you judged a true [procedurally correct] judgment. And they would not observe full mourning rites, but they would grieve, since grieving is only in the heart.