Nicola Sturgeon apologises to people accused of witchcraft

[Tom1200]

It is thought 4,000 Scots, most of them women, were accused of breaking the Witchcraft Act between 1563 and 1736.  Witch hunts took place in many countries during that period, but academics say Scotland's execution rate was five times the European average.  Confessions were regularly secured under torture, with those condemned strangled and burned at the stake.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-60667533

In a statement at Holyrood, the first minister said those accused under the act "were not witches, they were people and they were overwhelmingly women".

[Silver]

Thousands of Scots convicted of witchcraft could be posthumously pardoned if a new bill proposed by an MSP becomes law.

Natalie Don, the SNP MSP for Renfrewshire North and West, has launched a consultation on a member's bill to "right the historic wrong of witchcraft convictions" and give legal pardons to those convicted almost 300 years ago.

It comes after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon apologised on International Women's Day in March to those convicted, vilified or executed under the Witchcraft 1563 Act.

Thousands convicted of witchcraft could be pardoned under new bill | Politics News | Sky News

Edited June 23, 2022 by The Silver Shroud

[+Hammerclaw]

That's nice. Are they going to pay their descendents millions in reparations--do you think?

[XenoFish]

Kinda pointless.

[eight bits]

Virtue signalling on the cheap.