The New World Times

Today, witches will have to face the music.

         On May 27, 1692, to address the issue of witchcraft, Governor William Phips set up the Court of Oyer and Terminer in Salem Town. The court had six judges, including the prestigious Cotton Mather and the governor’s lieutenant, William Stoughton. It was officially named the Court of Oyer and Terminer, which means to hear and determine. The judges, however, are not from Salem, and they know nothing of Salem’s internal conflicts. All they know is the issue of witchcraft in Salem.

     In February, before the Court was officially set up, three girls, named Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, and Abigail Putnam Jr, accused Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba of being witches and tormenting them. In March, authorities started to question the suspects. While Good and Osborne denied these charges, Tituba admitted to working with the devil. She also implicated Good and Osborne and said that she saw the devil’s book. In the devil’s book, she said she had seen 9 names, including her own, which meant that there was still 6 witches in Salem. The girls now started to accuse more and more people.

     By the middle of May, fifteen more people had been accused. This included Rebecca Nurse, who was accused out of spite; George Burroughs, the former minister who moved to Maine but was then brought back after he was accused; and the Proctors, whose maid was Mary Warren, one of the accusing girls. Also around this time, there was a new governor, William Phips. When he arrived in Boston and assessed the situation, he decided to set up the Court of Oyer and Terminer, which was supposed to handle all the accusations of witchcraft and lessen the hysteria in Salem.

     The Court of Oyer and Terminer was the court that would determine if a witch was innocent or guilty. The accusers would come from all over the region, such as Salem Village, Andover, and Ipswich, to Salem Town, which was where the Court was set up. To convict a witch, the court would use spectral evidence. This meant that they would place the accused witch in the courtroom, and then bring the accusing girls in there as well. If the girls had fits, the Court would convict the witch. Possible ways for this to work, was, for example, if the accused man or woman closed his hand into a fist, the girls could say that he or she was choking them. Or, if the accused moved his or her hand, the girls could say that he or she was torturing them. Other evidence from the girls, was what girls would say about the accused. If the girls claimed they saw the witches appearing to them in dreams and visions, that would be more evidence as well. There were also other types of evidence, that, while not from the girls, it would be from the rest of society.

     Other ways include the other witches who confessed. They would name other witches to implicate them, which meant that they were guilty. Not only that, but the court would allow spectators to interrupt the legal proceedings by saying personal remarks and gossip to implicate the accused. Because of this, people easily took advantage, and they made accusations out of spite. To make it even harder for the accused witches, they did not have any lawyers to defend themselves, and their fate was only decided by if they confessed or not. Those who admitted to being witches were spared, but those who did not were found guilty, and would be hanged.

     Soon after the Court was set up on May 27, the first victim fell to the Court. On June 10, 1692, Bridget Bishop, an outsider who has been convicted of witchcraft in the past was tried, convicted, and hanged. It only took eight days for this to happen, and the haste of this proceeding alarmed many. Even one of the judges, Nathaniel Saltonstall, was so horrified by this that he resigned from the Court and was replaced by Jonathan Corwin. As the trials continued, more and more people were convicted and put to death. This included Rebecca Nurse, George Burroughs, John Proctor, Giles Corey, and Sarah Good. All in all, 19 people were hanged, Giles Corey was crushed to death, and at least four people died in prison, though some reports say it is as high as thirteen.

        Not everyone was put to death, however. Many others did confess, however, thus saving their lives. Unfortunately, if they had confessed, there will still be a punishment, such as that their property would have been taken away. Other punishments were more of a self-punishment. If you confessed, and you know you are not a witch, that is lying. But, the Puritans believed that lying was a sin, and they were very strict about how to be sinless, so that they could go to heaven as one of the elect. Another main problem was that they would be vulnerable to other accusations of witchcraft, as they admitted to being a witch once, people could think that they could work with the devil once more. The biggest problem, however, was what the Court would think of itself. If one has confessed, then the court would know that their goal was accomplished; to cleanse the land of witches. Confessing would only boost morale in the court, and doubt in the Court would become lower. But, one’s life might be more important than all of that. Yet, there were others that did not confess, and protested their innocence all the way to the gallow. These people were able to lessen popularity and belief in the Court.

Some of these people who did not confess were able to drive outcry from the public, even though they had sacrificed their lives to do so. Two major controversial deaths were from George Burroughs and Giles Corey. George Burroughs was the former minister of Salem, but moved to Maine after a dispute on his salary. Many people still had cold feelings about him though, so he was arrested in Maine and brought back to Salem. Right before he was about to hang, he recited the Lord’s prayer, which no witch is supposed to be able to do. But, the hangings proceeded nonetheless. Another major controversial death was the death of Giles Corey. Giles Corey was accused, but then when asked to plead guilty or plead innocence, he refused to do so, and just stood mute. So, the Court used a way of forcing a plea out of a person, which came from Europe. Known as Peine forte et dure, it was a torture method by forcing the unfortunate victim to lie on the field, and rocks would be continued to be put on until the victim entered a plea or died. Peine forte et dure was technically illegal because it violated Puritan beliefs, but the Court continued anyway. For Corey, he chose the latter option, and died.

        As the executions continued, the court became more and more unpopular with the rest of society. Many of the more educated members of society wanted more reasonable action. They were mainly concerned of their society’s descent into chaos. Cotton Mather’s father, Increase Mather, wrote a letter against the trials, and presented it to the court on October 3rd. In this letter, he stated that it is better to let ten suspected witches escape than to let one innocent person to be condemned. Increase Mather was not only the sole hope for the accused, but the girls had accused Governor Phips wife as well. His wife had many friends, and was never arrested, but because of the girl’s accusations on Phips wife, many people started to question how honest the girls really were. These two factors were crucial for the dissolving of the Court of Oyer and Terminer.

        By October 8th, only five days after Increase Mather presented his letter, Governor Phips banned the use of spectral evidence from the Court. Up until now, the Court was only convicting people with Spectral Evidence. Without this crucial piece of evidence, twenty eight of the final thirty three remaining accused witches were freed. By October 29th, Governor Phips orders an end to the accusations of people and permanently closes the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Instead, he replaces it with a new court, the Superior Court of Judicature; a more fair, and less biased court.

        The Superior Court of Judicature was made so that there would have been five judges, with the leader again being William Stoughton. All but one of the four other judges were involved in the Court of Oyer and Terminer as well, but they were to be guided by new rules, and spectral evidence was no longer allowed. However, the Superior Court of Judicature still held witch trials. Even without spectral evidence, in January, the Court held a trial in which they were able to find eight remaining people guilty, three of which were defendants of accused witches and the other five that were not yet the twenty eight out of the thirty three remaining accused freed. While William Stoughton wanted to issue death warrants for these eight, Phips interfered, thus saved their lives. Then, the second session for witchcraft trials was held in Charleston, Massachusetts, in February, and two more witchcraft sessions were held in April and May. There was a total of 10 people that were originally guilty, but they were found innocent. By the May session, the Court ended the Witchcraft trials by dismissing all charges against the remaining accused witches, which freed them all from prison. Due to the end of the Salem Witch Trials, the Superior Court of Judicature began to handle other cases that were not just religious trails, but also trials for actual crimes. The Superior Court of Judicature has continued to grow and evolve.

        Over the years, the Superior Court of Judicature had been called the Massachusetts Superior Court of Judicature, as it mainly focuses on issues in Massachusetts. By 1779, the Massachusetts Constitution was ratified, resulting in the Court getting a new name, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. This is still alive today, and is still referred to as the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. It is the highest court in all of Massachusetts, and it is one of the oldest courts in the world that is still alive today. After all, it can trace its roots all the way back to the Court of Oyer and Terminer in 1692. But, because of these ties, the now peaceful Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court does indeed have a very dark past.

        Even though having the deaths of tons of innocent people was a terrible thing, those who have sacrificed their lives might have not done so in vain. We were able to learn from our mistakes in the past. The accused were able to change society’s perspectives, and now, society has greatly lessened their views on witchcraft. The Court of Oyer and Terminer has killed many innocent people, and now, most people do not even believe that witches are a real thing. Because the Court used spectral evidence and convicted many innocent people, we have abolished it in our society. Not only that, but our religion has been changed as well. There are no more Puritans; it is an extinct religion. While the Court of Oyer and Terminer has put to death a lot of innocent people, it has greatly impacted our society’s views on religion, witches, and spectral evidence. Societies do not change, they evolve. The blood that the accused witches have shed, in an act to honor the truth, may have been enough to open a door that we, as members of society, will never be able to close it once more.