Execution seems to have been rare and carried out only as a last resort. If a murderer was unable or unwilling to pay "éraic" and was handed to his victim's family, they might kill him if they wished should nobody intervene by paying the "éraic". Habitual or particularly serious offenders might be expelled from the kin-group and its territory. Such people became outlaws (with no protection from the law) and anyone who sheltered him became liable for his crimes. If he still haunted the territory and continued his crimes there, he was proclaimed in a public assembly and after this anyone might lawfully kill him.