In an earlier post I wrote about my ancestor, Rebecca Greene Elsen Mudge Greensmith, was hung under suspicion of witchcraft in 1663. It took 360 years but in May 2023 Rebecca was exonerated. The Connecticut state Senate acknowledged that her trial and execution was a miscarriage of justice.
It follows a long-running campaign by descendants to clear the names of those wrongfully accused of being witches.
Connecticut's Senate voted 33-1 to exonerate those convicted in trials that took place in the state in the mid-to-late 1600s.
The senator who voted against the move, Rob Sampson, said that he believed it was wrong to "dictate what was right or wrong about periods in the past that we have no knowledge of".
"I don't want to see bills that rightfully or wrongfully attempt to paint America as a bad place with a bad history," he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
"I want us to focus on where we're going, which is a brighter and better future."
The resolution had already passed in Connecticut's House of Representatives, with 121 votes in favor and 30 against.
The resolution follows nearly two decades of lobbying by the CT Witch Trial Exoneration Project, a group set up in 2005 by descendants of the accused.
No comments:
Post a Comment