The Torah in Parashat Ki-Teseh commands that in the case of a Na’ara Ha’me’orasa – a betrothed girl – who commits adultery, both her and the adulterer must be put to death by stoning (Debarim 22:24) at the city’s “gate,” referring to the Bet Din. This verse introduces the Misva of Sekila, the obligation upon Bet Din to execute by stoning those who commit offenses which are punishable by this form of execution.
In Torah law, there are four forms of capital punishment – Sekila (stoning), Serefa (burning), Hereg (decapitation) and Henek (strangulation). The Gemara (Sanhedrin 49) brings different opinions as to whether Sekila or Serefa is the severest form of capital punishment. The consensus opinion is that Sekila is the severest type of execution.
When somebody was convicted of an offense punishable by Sekila, his clothes were removed, and only his private area would be covered, from the front. In the case of a woman, she was given a robe to wear. The offender would be brought to a two-story building called the Bet Ha’sekila, and his hands would be tied. He was brought up to the second story together with the witnesses who saw his offense and warned him before the act of the punishment to which he would be liable. One witness would push him off the second story from his waist. If he survived the fall, the witnesses would throw a large, heavy stone on his chest. If he still survived, then all the people would pick up rocks and throw them at him.
If a person committed two different capital offenses, then he would be given the more severe of the two forms of execution. If two people were sentenced to capital punishment, but it was forgotten which offender deserved which form of execution, then they would both be put to death with the less severe of the two forms of execution.
This law applies only in the times of the Bet Ha’mikdash, when courts are authorized to administer capital punishment, and the obligation rests specifically upon those assigned the task of punishing offenders. A Bet Din that failed to administer Sekila to an offender who deserved this form of capital punishment has violated this Misvat Aseh (affirmative command), even if they put the offender to death through some other means.