SPOILERS Unseen Academicals ***SPOILERS***

[Dotsie]

What perturbs me about the refusal to pardon the Pendle witches is that the courts refused to consider that under the law, magical witchcraft of the sort they were accused of, does not exist and should never have been a crime. That tells me that the UK court now believes magical witchcraft crimes do exist, and the UK system has fallen into superstition again.

The crimes were actually murder by witchcraft, practising witchcraft alone wasn't punishable by death. We know they couldn't do magic, but without evidence that they didn't commit murder, the accused can't be pardoned. Superstition has nothing to do with it.

 

[=Tamar]

Was there any evidence that they did anything that would have caused a death without magic being involved?

 

[Tonyblack]

One of the reasons "spectral evidence" is no longer allowed in court cases had to do with such cases. Spectral Evidence refers to testimony that a person was guilty due to dreams or visions of the person giving evidence.

 

[raisindot]

[QUOTE="Tonyblack, post: 368568, member: 4" Spectral Evidence refers to testimony that a person was guilty due to dreams or visions of the person giving evidence.[/QUOTE]

Hmmmm, here in the States the Republican party is trying to create the impression that our President was impeached by the House of Representative solely based on spectral evidence.