Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings

The Salem Witch Trials (Part 3)

Legal Procedures

Overview

Whenever someone concluded that a loss, illness, or death was caused by witchcraft, the accuser entered a complaint against the alleged witch with local magistrates. If the complaint was credible, magistrates had the accused arrested and brought before public examination – an interrogation where magistrates usually pressed the accused to confess.

If the magistrates were satisfied that the complaint was well-founded, the prisoner was handed over for trial by the superior court. In 1692, magistrates opted to wait for the arrival of a new charter and governor, who would establish a Court of Oyer and Terminer to handle cases. The superior court summoned witnesses before a grand jury.

A person was indicted on charges of afflicting someone with witchcraft, or for making an unlawful covenant with the Devil. Once indicted, the defendant went to trial, sometimes on the same day, as was the case of Bridget Bishop, the first person indicted and tried on June 2, and executed eight days later, on June 10, 1692.

There were four execution dates, with one person executed on June 10, 1692, five on July 19, 1692 (Sarah Good, Rebecca Nurse, Susannah Martin, Elizabeth Howe, and Sarah Wildes), another five executed on August 19, 1692 (Martha Carrier, John Willard, George Burroughs, George Jacobs, Sr., and John Proctor), and eight on September 22, 1692 (Mary Eastey, Martha Corey, Ann Pudeator, Samuel Wardwell, Mary Parker, Alice Parker, Wilmot Redd and Margaret Scott).

Several were given temporary reprieves after being convicted due to pregnancy, including Elizabeth (Bassett) Proctor and Abigail Faulkner. Five other women who were convicted in 1692, but the death sentence was never carried out: Mary Bradbury (in absentia), Ann Foster (died later in prison), Mary Lacey, Sr. (Foster's daughter), Dorcas Hoar and Abigail Hobbs.

81-year-0ld farmer from the southeast end of Salem (Salem Farms), Giles Corey, refused to enter a plea at his trial in September. The judges used an archaic form of punishment, peine forte et dure, where stones were piled on top of his chest until he could no longer breathe. Corey died two days later, not entering a plea. Corey's refusal explains why his estate was not confiscated by the Crown, but according to historian Chadwick Hansen, much of Corey's property was being seized and he made a will in prison: "his death was a protest ... against the methods of the court." Contemporary critic of the trial, Robert Calef wrote: "Giles Corey pleaded not Guilty to his indictment, but would not himself upon Tryal by the Jury (they having cleared none upon Tryal) and knowing there would be the same Witnesses against him, rather chose to undergo what Death they would put him to."

As convicted witches, Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey were excommunicated from their churches and denied proper burials. After their bodies were cut from the tree, they were tossed in a shallow grave and the spectators dispersed. Oral history claims the families of the dead reclaimed the bodies after dark and buried them in unmarked graves on family property. Record books during this time do not note the deaths of any of those executed.

Spectral Evidence

Most, but not all, of the evidence used against the accused, was spectral evidence, or testimony of the afflicted who claimed to see apparition or shape of the person who allegedly afflicted them. theological dispute ensued about the use of this evidence was based on whether a person had to give person to the Devil for his/her shape to be used to afflict. Opponents claimed the Devil was able to use anyone's shape to afflict people, but the Court contended the Devil could not use a person's shape without that person's permission; therefore, when the afflicted claimed to see the apparition of a specific person, it was accepted as evidence that the accused had been complicit with the Devil.