Claims extracted
22
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 22 hedged
("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
withheld
no quote in the article backed the model's score
Publisher signals
66/100
CBS News's corrections and
hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Just outside of London sits Maidstone, a quiet country town in a peaceful corner of southern England.
asserted
Maidstone → sit → England
Records show that more than 20 women convicted of witchcraft were hanged in Maidstone.
asserted
women → show → Maidstone
Witch hunts reached their peak in England in the 1600s.
asserted
hunts → reach → 1600s
In total across England and Scotland, around 5,000 women convicted of witchcraft were executed, some by hanging and some by burning.
asserted
women → convict → burning
"They were usually single women, spinsters, or widows, usually without a man to stick up for them," Claire Kehily, a member of the Maidstone Borough Council, told CBS News.
asserted
Kehily → stick → News
They were easier to target."
asserted
They → target → ?
Inside Maidstone's town hall, Kehily showed CBS News a prison cell, reconstructed from an earlier medieval building where accused witches were held before trial.
asserted
witches → show → trial
Now Kehily and her fellow councilors are lobbying the U.K. government and planning to petition King Charles III for an official pardon for all of Maidstone's convicted witches.
asserted
Kehily → lobby → witches
"It matters because it was a miscarriage of justice," Kehily said.
asserted
Kehily → matter → justice
"The crimes they were accused of they couldn't have been guilty of.
asserted
they → accuse → ?
And they had no way of being found innocent in many of the cases.
asserted
they → have → cases
Their memory was revived by Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible," an allegory for the political witch hunts led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.
asserted
memory → revive → 1950s
All of the falsely accused witches in Salem have since been pardoned.
asserted
All → accuse → Salem
But in the U.K., not a single convicted witch has been exonerated.
asserted
witch → convict → U.K.
Samantha Harris, the collections manager at Maidstone Museum, showed CBS News the official record of a witch trial in the town in 1652.
asserted
Harris → show → 1652
"There had to always be someone to blame," Harris explained, saying that natural disasters or illnesses were often blamed on these women.
asserted
disasters → have → women
"Death of pigs, cattle," Harris said.
asserted
Harris → say → pigs
"... We were scapegoating and blaming people that were often quite vulnerable."
asserted
that → scapegoate → people
Harris said that for her, getting the women pardoned is personal.
asserted
women → say → her
"Being single, being independent, these are things that would have been seen as threatening," Harris said.
asserted
Harris → see → ?
"I probably would've been targeted absolutely as a witch at the time …
asserted
I → target → time
If we don't learn from the past, what's to say things won't be recurring again in the future?
asserted
things → learn → future
The Aporia
