Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Orthodoxy plus judicial proceedings tends to equal wrongful deaths, even in the U.S. As every American schoolchild learns, the Salem witch trials of 1692 and 1693 were a pretty bleak episode in American history, with accusations of witchcraft flying freely in the Massachusetts town and 20 citizens ultimately losing their lives. But, as with Joan of Arc, there's a tale of later redemption. Gradually, some of the accused and executed had their excommunications reversed, beginning in the early 1700s. But that didn't cover everyone, so in 1957 the Massachusetts Legislature formally exonerated all of the supposed witches. Above, actors perform Arthur Miller's famous play about the witch trials, The Crucible.