The Legality of the Witch Trials - Blog 9

     All semester long, I have been interested in the legal aspect of the Salem Witch Trials. To me, it seems that the United States legal system dramatically failed those accused of witchcraft. I was interested in comparing the legal system used to try those individuals, versus the legal system we know today, and to get a better idea of the history behind the legal system.

When the Salem Witch Trials first started, Governor William Phips had to make a quick decision on how the accused would be tried. He decided to create a special court to try the accused witches, and this court was known as the Court of Oyer and Terminer, which means “to hear and determine”. That court looks quite different from the courts we know today, however some of the legal language remains, as the phrase “oyez, oyez, oyez” begins proceedings in the US Supreme Court. 

Of course, one huge difference between the legal system that tried the accused witches and the one today is the idea of innocent until proven guilty. As we know, the accused faced a different assumption - they were guilty until proven innocent. This presumption of innocence today is one of the fundamental rights of our legal system, so it is difficult to imagine a time when the presumption was quite the opposite. 

I read this interesting article on the legal aspect of the Salem Witch Trials, and in it a law professor from the University of Michigan talked about two big points of legal protection that were absent during the witch trials. The first is the hearsay rule, which basically prevents the use of statements made outside of court as evidence in a trial. This is one of the many legal objections a lawyer can make during trial (you might have heard it on a TV show - “Objection, hearsay!”). We’ve talked about spectral evidence in class all semester, and essentially all of the spectral evidence would have been deemed as hearsay in today’s courts. 

The second big point in the lack of legal protection is that the accused witches lacked the right to be represented by counsel. The accused witches essentially stood no chance without representation, there was no defense attorney to make the other side actually prove their case, or to cross examine the witnesses, or to object to any questions or testimony. 

It was pretty clear to me already that the accused witches in Salem were set up for failure from the beginning, but reading into the legality of it really solidifies that for me. These individuals stood no chance, the legal system that was supposed to bring justice did no such thing for these innocent people.


How the Salem Witch Trials Influenced the American Legal System | HISTORY

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