Today in Salem: The Chief Justice receives a petition from 6 women who are in prison after confessing to witchcraft. They’re actually innocent, they say. Can they recant their confessions? They were so terrified, the petition says, that they just agreed to whatever the judges said. Then they added details that they imagined the judges wanted to hear.
Many petitions, from tens to hundreds of people, have been presented in the past, but only one has been granted – that for the shorn Dorcas Hoar. Still, that was recently, so perhaps the Chief Justice will grant them this simple request.