Miscarriage(s) of Justice? (1)

Early On

“They believe that the execution of those who have been caught in the act of theft or robbery or some crime is more pleasing to the immortal gods but when the supply of such fails they resort to the  execution even of the innocent,” thus wrote Julius Caesar (100-44   BC) in describing the Celts in the then unknown island of England.

But it was a man from Nazareth who was meted by Roman justice and by politics the most humiliating capital punishment of all, the crucifixion. Rome’s own Caligula (AD 12-41) with his deadly tyranny had his closest adviser executed on charges of pimping by having the adviser’s wife sleep with him, paving the way for the pimping charge.

He mourned for months his favorite lover’s death and forbade people to laugh by making it a capital offense.

It was also in the Roman Empire that a catalog of grim death resulted from the persecution of Christian martyrs.  On top of that, Nero (AD 37-68), remembered as the emperor who “fiddled while Rome burned,” blamed the Christians for the fire that raged for six days and destroyed much of the city.
In early Medieval Europe there was such a thing as a trial by combat, expectedly watched by crowds who took sides with either protagonists.  That kind of trial was based on the belief that God will intervene to ensure that justice was done and the guilty was punished.  A case in point that the principle of might is right was actually wrong was the duel between a monk and a merchant in 1100.  The merchant lost in the duel but the monk who was later found guilty of another offense confessed to the previous offense.  It looked like the merchant who was right after all had been denied protection by God.

Also during the Medieval Period in Europe a little education could save one’s life.  There were transgressions for which the literate could plead ‘benefit of clergy,’ which was the recitation of the 51st  psalm, also known as the ‘neck verse’ because of the number of necks it had saved.

At the time when illiteracy was widespread, the clerics were more apt to be able to read and write.  But smart rogues who were incapable of reading learned the psalm by heart and recited it word for word with a book in front of them.  The test became outdated as education spread to a greater number of people.

In 17th century England, there were a thousand recorded cases of people hung for witchcraft, mostly elderly and lonely women who more often than not lived alone and kept pets such as birds, cats and dogs.  The pets were branded as familiars, which in this context mean “supernatural beings embodied in animals and are at the service of a person.”

An infamous witch-finder who was a master of the spring-loaded knife stabbed the suspects.  But since the blade of the knife recoiled into its handle, it left the suspects without a mark.  The absence of stab marks were evidence of witchcraft.

The last witch trial in England was in 1712 when Jane Wenham was accused of ‘conversing familiarly with the devil in the form of a cat.’  Her fate was sealed when a young servant girl threw a fit in front of her.  Found guilty and sentenced to death, she was pardoned by a judge who found the evidence worthless.  Wenham was freed when the girl who threw a fit in front of her which caused her imprisonment was found to be an epileptic.

But it is Germany that tops the list as champion in the most number of witches executed in Europe in the same century.  Two of the worst hit villages were left with only one female resident.  The rest were burned as witches.  A witch-hunter in Koln (Cologne) condemned to the stake a woman who refused his amorous advances.  He had her raped by his assistant and then burned alive.

The Salem witch-hunt in America in 1692 started with a group of girls aged nine to 20.  After hearing stories told by a local minister’s slave, a Caribbean, two of the youngest became hysterical and their symptoms were imitated by other children.  Then word spread that they were victims of sorcery.

A trial ensued, 19 were hanged and one man was pressed to death after refusing to plead.  When the frenzy subsided, the rural community repented and a day of public mourning was observed.  “We walked in clouds and could not see our way,” said the minister who gave evidence to one of those hanged.

The 1692 Salem tragedy was America’s last execution of witches.  Other Western countries that had accused witches executed ended the madness earlier, the Netherlands in 1610 and Britain in 1684.  Others followed suit in the next century.  Scotland had its last accused witch executed in 1727, France in 1745, and Germany in 1775.

(Sept 2004)