Iudex dicit servum innocentem statim liberandum esse.

The main clause is:

• Iudex dicit = The judge says

What follows is an indirect statement:

• servum innocentem statim liberandum esse

So the sentence works like:

• The judge says [that the innocent slave must be freed at once].

A very common Latin pattern is:

• verb of saying/thinking/perceiving
• followed by accusative + infinitive

That is exactly what is happening here.

Because it is the subject of the indirect statement, not the subject of the whole sentence.

In English, we say:

• The judge says that the slave must be freed.

In Latin, after a verb like dicit, the subject of the reported statement usually goes into the accusative, and the verb of that reported statement goes into an infinitive.

So:

• iudex = the subject of dicit
• servum = the subject of liberandum esse inside the indirect statement

This is called the accusative-and-infinitive construction.

Because innocentem agrees with servum.

It is describing the slave, so it matches servum in:

• case: accusative
• number: singular
• gender: masculine

So:

• servum innocentem = the innocent slave

Since servum is accusative, the adjective describing it must also be accusative.

Liberandum esse means something like:

• to have to be freed
• must be freed
• is to be freed

It is a passive periphrastic, made from:

• the gerundive: liberandum
• plus esse

This construction usually expresses necessity, obligation, or something that ought to be done.

So:

• servum liberandum esse = that the slave must be freed

Because the sentence is not just saying to be freed; it is saying must be freed.

Compare:

• liberari = to be freed
• liberandum esse = to have to be freed / must be freed

So liberari would only give a plain passive infinitive, while liberandum esse adds the idea of necessity or obligation.

Because the reported statement needs an infinitive verb after dicit.

The form liberandum by itself is just the gerundive adjective. To make a full verbal idea like must be freed, Latin uses:

• liberandum esse

The esse is what helps form the infinitive expression inside the indirect statement.

So after dicit, Latin gives:

• accusative subject: servum
• infinitive verb phrase: liberandum esse

The sentence does not explicitly say.

Because liberandum esse is passive, it tells us what must happen to the slave, not who must do it.

Latin could add the person responsible with a dative of agent, especially with this kind of construction. But here no agent is stated.

So the meaning is simply:

• the slave must be freed at once

without naming who must carry it out.

Statim means immediately or at once.

Here it most naturally goes with liberandum esse, so the sense is:

• must be freed at once

It does not most naturally mean the judge speaks immediately. The context and position strongly suggest that statim belongs with the freeing.

Because Latin word order is much more flexible than English word order.

English depends heavily on position:

• The judge says that the innocent slave must be freed immediately.

Latin depends more on endings:

• iudex is nominative, so it is the subject of dicit
• servum is accusative, so it belongs to the indirect statement
• innocentem matches servum
• liberandum esse is the infinitive phrase

So Latin can arrange the words for emphasis or style without changing the basic grammar as much as English can.

Yes.

Iudex is nominative singular, and it is the subject of dicit:

• Iudex dicit = The judge says

But it is not the subject of liberandum esse. Inside the reported statement, the logical subject is servum.

So there are really two different levels:

• main clause subject: iudex
• indirect statement subject: servum

Yes, very possibly.

In a legal context, innocens often means:

• innocent
• not guilty
• blameless

Since the sentence begins with iudex (judge), a learner should definitely notice that innocentem may have a legal sense here, not just a general moral one.

A direct version would use a normal finite verb, not an accusative-and-infinitive construction.

For example, the direct idea would be something like:

• Servus innocens statim liberandus est.
• The innocent slave must be freed at once.

But after dicit, Latin changes that into indirect statement form:

• servum innocentem statim liberandum esse

So one useful way to understand it is:

• direct: servus ... liberandus est
• indirect after dicit: servum ... liberandum esse

Not in good English.

A very literal breakdown might tempt you toward something awkward, but the natural sense is:

• must be freed
• is to be freed

When reading Latin, it is better to understand the construction as a whole rather than translating each piece too mechanically.

So even though it is built from a gerundive plus esse, the best English is usually something like:

• the slave must be freed at once