A woman branded a witch of Salem has now been pardoned 329 years after being wrongly convicted by a New England court in the 1700s.
Elizabeth Johnson Jr was one of 30 men and women found guilty of practicing witchcraft between February 1962 and May 1963 in colonial Massachusetts.
Elizabeth was not one of the 19 executed by hanging - but her name remained tarred by her conviction until her death in 1747, age 77.
The woman, who was just 22 when she was accused, quickly confessed to being a witch - which may have saved her life seeing as all 20 women who denied the charge were hanged.
In total, over 200 people were accused of sorcery and creating pacts with the devil in a freak case of mass hysteria which has been largely attributed to a lethal cocktail of inter-family feuding, mischievous kids, and church politics.
But the toil to exonerate Elizabeth was a modern effort after an eighth-grade teacher and the kids in her class worked tirelessly to clear the persecuted woman's name.
Johnson, who likely had a mental disability and died without marrying or having any children, was cleared on Thursday - 392 years after the original conviction- as part of a multi-million dollar state judgment.
Civics teacher Carrie LaPierre and her class at North Andoner middle school campaigned on the project for three years with a Massachusetts' Senator supporting the cause until her name was cleared.
Speaking with the New York Times, Ms LaPierre said: "I'm excited and relieved."
But the teacher said she can't revel fully in the victory because the kids - who graduated her class last year - are on summer break.
She added: "But also disappointed I didn't get to talk to the kids about it.
"It's been such a huge project.
“We called her E.J.J, all the kids and I. She just became one of our world, in a sense.”
Their efforts have been recorded in a documentary entitled The Last Witch, which details how the project began.
It started with LaPierre covering the witch hunt as part of the curriculum last year.
LaPierre and the kids realised that despite numerous attempts to clear the names of the so-called Salem Witches, Elizabeth's name had been missed off in court documents.
So she contacted an expert who had written about Johnson, Rhode Island archivist Richard Height.
But because Height lives in another state, he was unable to file legislation in relation to events in Massachussetts, so LaPierre was offered the opportunity.
According to historical reports about the trials, Elizabeth was arrested shortly after the child-sparked hysteria began.
On August 10, 1670 she was seized and quickly confessed to consorting with the devil and meeting him at a gathering of around 120 other townspeople.
Like many of the others, she was accused of witchcraft by the town's children.
She went on to accuse another woman of baptising her as a witch, and testified that she'd seen other key figures in the town, including its priest, at the unholy gathering.
You can find out more at the website for The Last Witch by clicking here or by visiting the Facebook page here.
