Scotland moves to pardon thousands executed as witches -- 400 years later

Legislation is moving through Scotland’s parliament to pardon thousands of women who were snared in Scotland’s great purge, including some who were tortured to death in the North Berwick witch trials.

King James, later King James I of England and Ireland, personally interrogated many of those who were rounded up and charged with summoning the storm during a late-night mass with the devil at the town’s Auld Kirk. He later wrote a bestselling guide on how to spot a witch. William Shakespeare used some of the details from the trials in "Macbeth." "It’s not dissimilar to how Scotland needs to face up to its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade."  "There are many different groups competing for legitimacy and relevance and they do this by identifying people as witches."

Many of the 19 people executed in Salem were cleared in the years following the witch trials there, with another group exonerated 20 years ago.

But it is only now that legislation is moving through Scotland’s parliament to pardon thousands of women who were snared in Scotland’s great purge, including some who were tortured to death in the North Berwick witch trials.