A US state acquitted twelve people who were convicted of witchcraft nearly 400 years ago during the colonial era in America.
Eleven of them were executed by hanging after trials for witchcraft in Connecticut (northeast) in the mid-seventeenth century, while one of them was exempted from this punishment.
Officials in the state of Connecticut approved a decision in this direction this week, exonerating the executed people, who were nine women and two men, describing what happened as a “judicial error.”
In a statement, the CT Witch Trail Examination Project, which includes descendants of those convicted of witchcraft centuries ago, welcomed the vote by Connecticut officials after they led a campaign to restore posthumous rights to the people involved.
Connecticut’s decision comes on the eve of the 376th anniversary of the first hanging for witchcraft in New England, the execution of Alice Young.
Hundreds of people, mostly women, were accused of witchcraft in seventeenth-century New England, particularly during the famous trials in Salem, Massachusetts, between 1692 and 1693, which were overshadowed by fear and superstition.
