Trial by drowning
Trial by drowning was a method of punishing women suspected of witchcraft. The idea was that witches do not drown. As part of the trial the person was thrown into a lake or river or submerged under water. If the person sank to the bottom, she was innocent and hence not a witch. If she survived, she was a witch and could be hanged or executed by burning. Either way, the accused faced death, and a no-win situation.
This type of procedure, however, is a historical urban legend, as there is no contemporaneous record of such a "trial" actually having taken place. According to Frederick G. Kempin's Historical Introduction to Anglo-American Law in a Nutshell, a West legal text, the actual practice in an "ordeal of cold water" was to hurl the tied-up victim into a body of water. If the water received the defendant, he was innocent and hopefully pulled out of the water and freed. Kempin notes that the historical record indicates a preponderance of acquittals. Also per Kempin, this was not a method of trial exclusive to charges of witchcraft, but was for villeins and other "unfree" people in medieval England.
See also
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