DEUT1031 Do not work or plant the land where city elders break a heifer’s neck after a murder. Key concept: So that everyone who passes by will be reminded that because a Jew was murdered, a heifer was killed to publicize the tragedy. Everyone will see that the land where the heifer was killed has remained desolate, and so it shall remain forever, just as our hearts should be forever desolate, for a Jew’s life was tragically cut short. The land’s desolation will serve to cause the nation to be repulsed by the idea of murder, so no Jew will ever think to wantonly take another person's life. This is the main idea of the entire procedure--to make us abhor murder and to detest its evil.