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The Injustice of the Salem Witch Trials The modern day justice system is in place to protect the rights of its citizens. It gives everyone the right to a fair and impartial trial. Many measures are in place to ensure that trials remain fair. The Salem Witch trials did not follow the same guidelines as the modern justice system, and were not fair to the accused. The accused witches were not given a lawyer they were forced to defend themselves. The chief magistrate of the Witch Trials was bias, which compromised the integrity of the trials. The use of spectral evidence was allowed. Also, outbursts from the crowd were allowed, and went unpunished. Before the accused witches went to trial, they were subject to a pretrial, much like in modern justice. The pretrial stage is designed to decide if there is enough evidence to send the accused to trial. In a modern pretrial, lawyers would meet and enter evidence to a judge. Salem was completely different, it was a way to strong arm people into a confession. John Hathorne was the chief magistrate during the pretrials in Salem. He conducted these trials, by modern standards, in a very unprofessional way. He had the accused prejudged as witches, and they were guilty unti