EXOD542 Judaism's effort to individualize justice applies not only to punishment, but to defining crimes in the first place. The clearest example maybe the laws of homicide. The shedding of blood is the subject of the first admonition of a criminal nature in the Bible: "Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed; for in His image did God make men." (Genesis 9:6. The term is first used in Genesis 4:8). Murder is prohibited by the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:13; Deut 5:17), and is marked as a capital offense in [this verse]. However, long before secular systems sought to differentiate among offenders, Jewish law had already done so. Not all homicides are treated the same. Distinctions are made according to the crucial element of the defendant's intent. In Judaism, the death penalty is prescribed for murder only if it is willful [this verse, Exod 21:14; Leviticus 24:17, 21]. The Torah articulates a distinction between premeditated murder and accidental killings. Today we might speak of the difference between deliberate killings (murder) and accidental killings (manslaughter or negligent homicide). Both are deserving of punishment, but they are not deserving of the same punishment. The Torah provides for Cities of Refuge, to which an offender could flee if he accidentally kills another human being. (Exod 21:13; Numbers 35:30-34; Deut 19:1-13). In those cities, the accidental killer would be safe from the avengers, at least pending an assessment of whether he had killed intentionally. The unintentional killer would then have to reside there until the current High Priest died, at which point he could leave the city and be legally protected from avengers for the rest of his life. (By Laurie L. Levenson, "Judaism and CriminalJustice"