Trial Evidence Essay

Tags: salem witch trials trial courts historiography women murder norms prostitution politics

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Total Length: 598 words ( 2 double-spaced pages)

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Response to Craker

Craker describes the three types of evidence used during the Salem judicial proceedings: spectral evidence, non-spectral evidence, and confessions. According to Craker, the types of evidence used determined which individuals were selected for trial and execution. Most importantly, the author claims that no individual was called to trial or executed on the basis of spectral evidence alone. Craker shows how a closer examination of trial evidence and procedures can reconstruct a more accurate narrative of the Salem events. Prior historical constructions have been emotionally driven and sensationalistic, based on the assumption that spectral evidence was weighted more heavily than it actually was. In fact, non-spectral evidence proved far more meaningful in the eyes of the courts. The author investigates 156 accused and the evidence brought against them, in order to showcase the greater significance of non-spectral evidence.

Therefore, the Craker reading underscores the importance of re-investigating primary source material. Historians too often buy into prevailing paradigms, which are grounded in biases and assumptions. Using the examples of the Salem witch trials, Craker shows how trial evidence should be revisited to promote broader understanding of the political and social contexts in which the events took place. That non-spectral evidence proved far more important than the sensationalistic, and legally limited, spectral evidence, shows that politics and maintaining social order were far more important than the religious overtones touted during the trials and in subsequent historiography.

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Spectral evidence was significant, in that it served to discount the character of the accused and added emotional weight to each case. Yet spectral evidence alone was insufficient to lend legitimacy to the courts. The courts depended on the perceived legitimacy of the confession and the non-spectral evidence entered into the public record.

Response to Cohen

Cohen describes the evidence used in the Helen Jewett Case, helping to reconstruct history based on a return to primary source documents. As with similar high-profile murders, the Jewett case was highly sensationalized by the profit-driven media banking on the popular appeal of a sexualized victim. Richard Robinson seemed an easy target, almost too easy. The news media seized the opportunity to practically fictionalize the events, creating a narrative that would embed itself into the public consciousness. Cohen calls the ensuing “media frenzy” something that impeded the ability of the public to make rational judgments about the veracity of the actual evidence (p. 60). In particular, Cohen implies that one of the main reasons why Robinson was acquitted was that the victim could be portrayed in an unsympathetic light: a woman who expressly violated the norms of female propriety. Helen Jewett became the poster child for public outcry against what it defined….....

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