Salem witch trials governor pardon

The curiosity of eighth-graders convinced a Massachusetts state senator to introduce a legislative pardon for the last victim accused of being a witch during the Salem Witch Trials in , the Associated Press reported. However, she was never executed. DiZoglio said she was inspired by students in an eighth-grade civics class at North Andover Middle School. Teacher Carrie LaPierre and the students extensively researched Johnson and how she could be pardoned for her conviction that was never formally cleared.

It has been years since the Salem Witch Trials took place when twenty people were killed and hundreds of others were wrongly accused of practicing witchcraft in the hysteria that started in One man died by being crushed to death with rocks and the others accused were hung.

More than three centuries after Johnson was wrongly convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death, she's finally on the verge of being exonerated. If lawmakers approve DiZoglio's measure, Johnson will be the last accused witch to be cleared, according to Witches of Massachusetts Bay, a group devoted to the history and lore of the 17th-century witch hunts.

William Phips threw out her punishment as the magnitude of the gross miscarriages of justice in Salem sank in. And because she never had children, there is no group of descendants acting on her behalf.

Her bill would tweak legislation, amended in , to include Johnson among others who were pardoned after being wrongly accused and convicted of witchcraft. It was funded in part by donations from descendants of those accused of being witches.

LaPierre, the teacher, said some of her students initially were ambivalent about the effort to exonerate Johnson because they launched it before the presidential election and at a time when the COVID pandemic was raging. Main Menu U. News U. More: Witches on trial: Peabody Essex Museum displays rare documents and artifacts from Salem's infamous past.

If lawmakers approve the measure, Johnson will be the last accused witch to be cleared, according to Witches of Massachusetts Bay, a group devoted to the history and lore of the 17th-century witch hunts. Twenty people from Salem and neighboring towns were killed and hundreds of others accused during a frenzy of Puritan injustice that began in stoked by superstition, fear of disease and strangers, scapegoating and petty jealousies.

Nineteen were hanged, and one man was crushed to death by rocks. In the years since, dozens of suspects officially were cleared, including Johnson's mother, the daughter of a minister whose conviction eventually was reversed. But for some reason, Johnson's name wasn't included in legislative attempts to set the record straight.

Johnson was 22 when she was caught up in the hysteria of the witch trials and sentenced to hang. It never happened: Then-Gov. William Phips threw out her punishment as the magnitude of the gross miscarriages of justice in Salem sank in. But because she wasn't among those whose convictions were formally set aside, hers still technically stands.