Abnormal Behaviors Of The Salem Witch Trials In 1692

The Salem Witch Trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 was most defiantly a time when one could attribute “moral panic” to the deaths of 20 people who were hung for being what society deemed as witches. It was a time when Christianity was prominent and no one steered away from the biblical beliefs. The small town of Salem, where everyone knew their neighbors was stricken by the physical unnatural actions of two young girls, Abigail Williams and Betty Parris. “The two girls were known to throw fits that involved screaming, crying, crawling, destroying property and contorting themselves in ways that society seen as abnormal bizarre behavior” (Salem Witch Trials HIstory Channel, 2014). These behaviors brought about increased

“Local authorities often encouraged the town’s people to fear each other, who would then condemn their neighbors as witches” (Salem Witch Trials HIstory Channel, 2014). Many individuals would succumb to the “witch hunts,” and soon the community would encourage prosecution of those believed to be witches; to death. “The court would use, "spectral evidence”, which refers to a witness testimony that the accused person's spirit or spectral shape appeared to him/her witness in a dream at the time the accused person's physical body was at another location” (Spectral EvidenceLaw and Legal Definision, 2001-2015). In the end, several years later, the town of Salem would be faced with a harsh discovery that indeed they wrongfully accused and put to death many lives at the hands of “moral panic” and the court authorities. A mere perspective of allowing a vison that appeared in a dream as evidence instead of relying on true facts, such as a medical evaluation from a doctor, would have seemed more practical and

Scott. Malcolm Scott and a friend De’Marchoe Carpenter were convicted of the murder of Karen Summers in 1995. Scott and the co-defendant Carpenter were at a party and while outside, a car drove by and gun shots were fired killing Summers. Witnesses were interviewed and interrogated until the police apprehended Scott and Carpenter in Tulsa on a murder complaint. During the investigation, Michael Wilson was also arrested and found to have the murder weapon and the vehicle used in the drive-by shooting which was registered to him and in his possession, according to the newspaper article in the Tulsa World (Branstetter, 2014). The prosecutor in the case would end up offering a plea bargain with Wilson for his testimony against Scott and Carpenter for a lesser charge. Upon Wilson being executed on another case, he recants his testimony and in his last words, speaks of Scott and Carpenter’s innocence. One other witness also tells of his untruthful statement and declares the innocence of Scott and