Trials That Shaped Us

Parts VI and VII trace the moment Salem's local panic becomes a legal machine, and then a colony-wide catastrophe. With the charter revoked and Massachusetts lacking a functioning high court, the early proceedings unfold through improvised inquests run by local magistrates, marked by public spectacle, presumption of guilt, and the dangerous absence of procedural restraints. Accusations multiply, a...

Parts IV and V move the story into Salem Village itself, a small farming community tethered to prosperous, merchant-driven Salem Town and increasingly at war with it. Geographic isolation, a stream of traumatized refugees from brutal frontier violence, and constant fear of nearby raids all sharpened the village’s anxiety. Inside the village, long-simmering factionalism hardened into a battle for p...

Parts II and III introduce the Puritans who built Massachusetts Bay as a “city on a hill,” a model godly society meant to inspire the world. Their theology centered on covenant and predestination, with church, marriage, and community all understood as binding covenants before God. They rejected most secular amusements, saw the supernatural as ever present, and prized self-discipline and communal d...

In 1692, the otherwise unremarkable town of Salem, Massachusetts became the site of one of the most notorious episodes in American legal history: the Salem Witch Trials. By the end of the trials, more than 20 people had been executed or died in prison and more than 200 imprisoned in an atmosphere of hysteria. This series will explore this episode and will discuss the course of the trials and the c...

In Part 5 of The Trials of the Judges at Nuremberg, 1947 , Host Judge Stephen Sfekas explains how the tribunal in United States v. Alstoetter defined and applied the new category of crimes against humanity. He walks through the court’s reasoning on ex post facto concerns, judicial immunity, obedience to German law, and the use of decrees such as Night and Fog and the Law Against Poles and Jews as...

In this episode Judge Sfekas describes the trial including the motions to dismiss and the testimony. In particular, he will describe the cases against Schlegelberger and the Night and fog programs and the "law against Poles and Jews", as well as the cases against Rothaug and Oeschey. He will read portions of the transcript, and play a recording of Telford Taylor's eloquent opening statement.

This is part three of The Trials of Nuremberg, 1947. Host Judge Stephen Sfekas outlines howGermany’s legal system—once considered among the most advanced in the world—gradually became an instrument of tyranny. He traces the roots from Bismarck’s judicial reforms to Hitler’s Enabling Act, showing how civil law traditions, social class, and career incentives helped create a judiciary loyal to the st...

In Part 2 of The Trial of the Nazi Judges at Nuremberg, host Judge Stephen Sfekas traces the shift from the international IMT to the U.S.-run Nuremberg Military Tribunals. After debate over more international trials, Robert Jackson said no, and the Allies agreed each occupier would pursue justice in its own zone, opening the door for the American program in Nuremberg. We explain how the NMTs widen...

In 1947, a group of German judges stood before an American tribunal in Nuremberg, accused of war crimes committed under the Nazi regime. How did it come to this — judges, once entrusted with justice, now on trial for betraying it? In Part 1 of The Trial of the Nazi Judges at Nuremberg 1947 , host Judge Stephen J. Sfekas (Circuit Court for Baltimore City) sets the stage for one of the most conseque...