Katharina Kepler is cleared of witchcraft
Katharina Kepler was cleared of a witchcraft charge by the Duke of Württemberg on 4 October 1621, after her astronomer son Johannes helped defend her.
The Duke of Württemberg found Katharina Kepler free of the witchcraft charge on 4 October 1621. She had come close to execution. Her son Johannes, the astronomer, had worked to save her.
Wikipedia records that she was acquitted and let go in 1621, after 405 days held before trial. The university law faculty at Tübingen had ruled the evidence insufficient on either side. Torture to extract a confession was rejected, as was outright release. The faculty instead had her taken to see the torture instruments while each was described in vivid detail, a practice called territio verbalis, intended to scare an accused person into confessing. She held firm. The case cost Johannes Kepler over 900 guilders, above two years of his pay, since delays pushed up the costs.
"This ultimately led to an acquittal. A week after her torture she was released in 1621 after 405 days of pretrial detention. The trial cost Johannes Kepler over 900 guilders (more than two years' salary) because the costs were artificially inflated by delays in the trial, excessive costs for heating, food, and two guards.[4]"
- 1621: Not Katharina Kepler, thanks to her son Johannes, Executed Today
- August 1620: Kepler's Mother Imprisoned for Witchcraft, APS News