The phenomenon of the Salem witchcraft trials was caused by several factors in the society and religion of the puritan community. Religion controlled the daily life of Salem and its surrounding country, limiting its followers' activities. Though women were supposedly equal in the Puritan religion, Salem and its contemporaries were clearly patriarchal, which showed in fact that it was almost entirely women being accused of witchcraft. After all, only 6 men were executed as "wizards", while women bore the

Although it is obvious that the religious and superstitious feelings of the time led to the accusations of witchcraft, executions would not have been possible without the involvement of the government. When Massachusetts Governor Phips wrote to the English government, he was told to take care of the problem and do what he must. Not only did Phip's chosen chief justice, William Stoughton, have no legal education, he had free reign over rulings. This was not helped by the fact that the entire judiciary system was corrupted by the involvement of church and state. To the deeply religious Judges and Juries, witches were mortal enemies of the church. As far as juries were concerned, the accused were already proven guilty of witchcraft, thus "witches" had unfair trials. Another problem in the court system was the acceptance of false evidence, namely the use of "special evidence". This practice allowed the crimes committed by a person's specter against another person to be used as evidence. However, specters were invisible to all but the person being attacked, leaving accusers free to lie. At trial, witches were deprived of many rights that the U.S. Constitution later provided. The accused did not have rights to an attorney, to obtain witness in their defense, and they could be forced to give testimony against themselves. When the trial was over, if the accused were pronounced innocent, they could be brought back into court for double jeopardy. in the case of Bridget Bishop (who was accused of practicing witchcraft in 1680 and again in 1692) and Rebecca Nurse who was initially proclaimed innocent but brought back within months. In the case of Gile

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