Good lord, dipshit. The Salem witch trials allowed the testimony of the 'spirits' of the accused and what they had these disembodied spirits had told other people in town ("spectral evidence"). You so crazy youre makin' my PhD relevant!
2/ In all seriousness, having someone testify against you and say that you appeared to them in an apparition and said you were guilty would seriously suck. #criminalprocedure #spectralevidence
3/ Interesting side note to this: Cotton Mather - Puritan bigwig at the time - was during the trials a supporter of spectral evidence. But a few years later, if i am recalling this right, he changed his tune and said it wasn't reliable evidence. What is notable is that ...
4/ he didn't come to this conclusion from a modern or rationalist perspective. He decided that it was unreliable. Because the person talking could actually be Satan or that the person who was visited by the specter might be possessed.
