4. Thomas Cornell Jr. was executed based on spectral evidence
In 1673 Thomas Cornell Jr. was accused of murdering his mother in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Cornell was the son of Thomas Cornell, the patriarch of a family whose descendants include Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University, Amelia Earhart, Richard Nixon, and strangely enough, Lizzie Borden, as well as several other notable American and Canadian politicians. Rebecca Briggs Cornell, Thomas Jr’s widowed mother who held her late husband’s fortune and property, was found dead on February 8, 1673, burnt to a cinder. The body lay before a fireplace. Speculation was that an ember caught her dress afire, either before or after death, and the event was called an “unhappie accident”.
When the late woman’s brother began to experience dreams in which his sister appeared, complaining of her being burned to death, he reported them to the authorities. The body was exhumed, and a wound was discovered which had been earlier missed. Thomas was accused of murder (the estate was used as the motive) and the spectral evidence of the late woman’s brother’s dream was introduced at trial, helping to convict him. Thomas was convicted and hanged for murdering his mother. Among the witnesses at his execution was his pregnant wife Sarah, who named their child Innocent when she was born, in honor of its father.