What was crushing a person to death during the Salem witch trials called?

Answer 1

Peine forte et dure. (French legal term meaning 'Hard and forceful punishment.')

Peine forte et dure was not a sentence that was carried out against a guilty party, it was rather a form of torture used to impel the accused into entering a plea when they refused to do so (stood mute.)

In practice, heavy stones would be placed upon the chest of the accused until he or she entered a plea of Guilty or Not Guilty. If they continued to refrain from pleading, death by suffocation would eventually occur.

From NationMaster.com: Many defendants charged with capital offences nonetheless refused to plead, since thereby they would escape forfeiture of property, and their heirs would still inherit their estate; but if the defendant pled guilty and was executed, their heirs would inherit nothing, their property escheating to the Crown.

Peine forte et dure was abolished in the United Kingdom in 1772, although the last known actual use of the practice was in 1741. In 1772 refusing to plead was deemed to be equivalent to pleading guilty. This was changed in 1827 to being deemed a plea of not guilty. Today, in all common law jurisdictions, standing mute is treated by the courts as equivalent to a plea of Not Guilty. The most famous victim in the United Kingdom was the Roman Catholic martyr Saint Margaret Clitherow, who was pressed to death on March 25, 1586, after refusing to plead to the charge of having harboured Catholic (then outlawed) priests in her house (in order to avoid a trial in which her own children would be obliged to give evidence). The only victim of peine forte et dure in American history was Giles Corey, who was pressed to death on September 19, 1692, during the Salem witch trials, after he refused to enter a plea in the judicial proceeding. According to legend, his last words as he was being crushed were "More weight," and he was thought to be dead as the weight was applied.