If anyone who is guilty of crime, or of giving wicked counsel to another, cannot escape punishment, how much more liable is he who deliberately and maliciously commits homicide? For this reason, as very frequently, through the excesses of cruel masters, slaves are deprived of their lives, without having committed any crime; it is proper that this license should be entirely abolished by means of the following law, which shall be hereafter observed by all, to wit: that no master or mistress shall deprive either their own slaves, or the slaves of others, of life, without an order of court. But if such a slave should acknowledge his guilt of a crime for which he is liable to punishment by death, his master or his accuser shall straightway communicate the fact to the judge of the district where the deed was committed; or to the governor of the city, or the governor of the province; and if, after an investigation, it is evident that the crime has been committed, the culprit shall receive, either from the judge or from his own master, the punishment of death, which he deserves. If the judge should be unwilling to order him to be executed he shall commit his sentence of death to writing, and the master shall then have the power to either kill him, or to spare his life. If a slave, of either sex, while resisting his or her master, should strike him with a sword, stone, or with any weapon; or should attempt to strike him; and the master, in his own defence, should immediately kill the slave, he shall not be punished for homicide, if it is evident that he defended himself; that is to say, if he can establish by the testimony, or the oaths of other slaves who were present, and by his own oath, that he was acting in his own defence. Where any person, through malice, either acting himself or through the agency of another, kills his own slave, he shall be deprived of the right to testify in court thereafter, as a mark of infamy; and, in order that such rashness may be prevented, he shall be exiled as long as he lives, and be forced to do penance, and his property shall be given to those whom the law has designated as his nearest heirs. Anyone who shall deliberately or intentionally kill, or order to be killed, a slave, of either sex, belonging to another, shall be compelled to give two slaves of equal value, to the master of the one who was killed; and the homicide, according to the provision hereinbefore stated, shall be sentenced to perpetual exile. And if either a master or a mistress, influenced by a sense of injury, or by anger, while inflicting punishment upon a slave of either sex, whether their own, or belonging to another, should kill such slave by a blow; and should be able to prove, either by witnesses, or by his or her own oath, that he or she involuntarily committed said homicide; such person shall not be amenable to punishment under this law. Where any male or female slave admits that he or she has, at the instigation,