8th-Graders Lead Effort to Pardon Wrongly Convicted 'Witch'

 A woman convicted of witchcraft in 1693 and sentenced to death at the height of the Salem Witch Trials may finally be exonerated in Massachusetts.

FILE - In this July 19, 2017, file photograph, Karla Hailer, a fifth-grade teacher from Scituate, Mass., shoots a video where a memorial stands at the site in Salem, Mass., where five women were hanged as witches more than 325 years earlier. A woman convicted of witchcraft in 1693 and sentenced to death at the height of the Salem Witch Trials finally will be exonerated if Massachusetts lawmakers approve a bill inspired by a curious eighth-grade history class.

State Sen. Diana DiZoglio, a Democrat from Methuen, has introduced legislation to clear the name of Elizabeth Johnson Jr., who was condemned in 1693 at the height of the Salem Witch Trials but never executed.

DiZoglio says she was inspired by sleuthing done by a group of 13- and 14-year-olds at North Andover Middle School. Civics teacher Carrie LaPierre's students painstakingly researched Johnson and the steps that would need to be taken to make sure she was formally pardoned.

“It is important that we work to correct history,” DiZoglio said Wednesday. “We will never be able to change what happened to these victims, but at the very least, we can set the record straight.”

Fully Story:

https://www.usnews.com/news/offbeat/articles/2021-08-19/8th-graders-lead-effort-to-pardon-wrongly-convicted-witch



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