On the 24th of June of 1408, a French court sentenced a murderer to death by execution,

she had entered the home of a neighbor and found a four-month-old child inside, alone

and unattended.

Although she never disclosed her reason for doing so, she killed the child right there

in the house.

After her trial, she was moved to the prison to be held until her execution.

The others who were in prison there were most certainly jeering at her.

They called her names.

Yes, they were hardened criminals, but to kill a child, even they were appalled.

The prison, however, treated her the same as those men by charging her family the same

rate for her daily meals.

On July 17th, she was guided to the platform and a rope was placed around her neck.

A crowd was most likely gathered that day to watch the spectacle.

Like the criminals inside the prison, they too must have mocked her and shouted insults.

And then, after the trap door snapped open and she plummeted to her death, it was over.

History is full of these stories.

A criminal goes to trial and justice wins the day.

What was odd about that trial in 1408 though was the suspect, because she wasn't a local

woman or even a relative of the child she killed.

She wasn't even human, you see.

She was a pig, literally a farm animal, tried in a court of law, sentenced to be put to

death and then executed on the gallows three weeks later.

...