Makkot 4: More Than One Punishment for Conspiring Witnesses?

How much diluted water with wine will invalidate a mikvah? How much water with milk will do the same?  Do we hold similar standards when a barrel of drawn water falls into the Mediterranean Sea where one is about to enter a mikvah?  What about the fact that that sea is quite still? Do our considerations change when that same barrel falls into a more standard body of water being used as a mikvah?  A related question is raised: if a loaf of teruma falls upon spilled wine, does the bread continue to hold its status as teruma?

A new Mishna returns the conversation to that of conspiring witnesses.  If two witnesses are found to be conspiring after testifying that a man owed two hundred and fifty dinars to another man, are they both flogged (the man's punishment for holding money that is not his) and they have to repay the money owed?  This would mean that they would be punished twice, and the rabbis have suggested that people should not be punished twice for the same crime.  Instead, the more serious punishment is applied on its own. Secondly, we are told of conspiring witnesses who testify that someone is liable to get forty lashes.  Should they receive eighty lashes?  One set as the victim's punishment, and the second set as the given consequence for bearing false witness against one's neighbour?  The rabbis decide that forty lashes are appropriate in this case.

The Gemara considers the notion of two punishments for the same crime.  Though this is not usually allowed, there are some exceptions.  For example, a husband who defames his wife by claiming that she is not a virgin is liable to flogging and to pay a fine of 100 silver coins.  The rabbis take issue with the punishment of flogging.  Is an action required before that punishment has been determined to be appropriate? Through examining other cases, the rabbis suggest that flogging is in fact the punishment administered when the defining characteristic of a case is that one violated a prohibition where no action was taken in that violation.