Maez bin Malik came to the Prophet ﷺ and said, "I have committed adultery."The Prophet ﷺ turned away from him.Then he said again, "I have committed adultery."The Prophet ﷺ turned away from him.Then he said, "I have committed adultery."The Prophet ﷺ turned away from him.Then he said, "I have committed adultery."The Prophet ﷺ turned away from him, until he had confessed four times. Then the Prophet ﷺ ordered that he be stoned. When the stones struck him, he turned and fled in haste. A man met him carrying the jawbone of a camel and struck him with it, knocking him down. When the Prophet ﷺ was told of how he had fled when the stones hit him, he said, "Why did you not let him go?"
حدثنا أبو بكر بن أبي شيبة حدثنا عباد بن العوام عن محمد بن عمرو عن أبي سلمة
جاء ماعز بن مالك إلى النبي ﷺ فقال إني زنيت فأعرض عنه ثم قال إني قد زنيت فأعرض عنه ثم قال إني زنيت فأعرض عنه ثم قال قد زنيت فأعرض عنه حتى أقر أربع مرات فأمر به أن يرجم فلما أصابته الحجارة أدبر يشتد فلقيه رجل بيده لحي جمل فضربه فصرعه فذكر للنبي ﷺ فراره حين مسته الحجارة فقال فهلا تركتموه
[Its chain of transmission is hasan]. Tirmidhi reported it in the chapters on legal punishments, in the chapter on warding off the legal punishment from the confessor when he retracts, hadith 1428, from the hadith of Muhammad bin Amr, with this wording, and he said, "This is a hasan hadith." Hakim graded it sahih according to the criteria of Muslim, 4/363, and Dhahabi agreed with him. It is also found in Musannaf Ibn Abu Shayba, 10/72, narrated from Abbad, with slight variation.