Connecticut finally pardons 17th-century witchcraft victims after 400 years

Connecticut has passed a resolution exonerating people tried and executed for witchcraft nearly four centuries after their so-called crimes. The resolution resulted from the Connecticut Witch Trial Exoneration Project, whose participants became disenchanted by what had been state lawmakers’ failure to apologize for the fate suffered by many convicted of witchcraft. The witch trials of colonial America in the 16th and 17th centuries saw hundreds of people accused of practicing witchcraft and associating with the devil, casting them out of their societies and tarnishing their family names. Many were ultimately tortured and hanged to death.