NOV. 2, 2001

More than three centuries after they were accused, tried and hanged as unrepentant witches on Gallows Hill in Salem, Mass., five women have been officially exonerated by the state.

The act, approved by the Legislature, was signed on Halloween by the acting governor, cheering the descendants of Bridget Bishop, Susannah Martin, Alice Parker, Wilmot Redd and Margaret Scott. The five were among 20 men and women put to death during the witchcraft hysteria of 1692.

''We've had an awful lot of descendants that have been out there working for it,'' said Shari Kelley Worrell of Barrington, Ill., an eighth great-granddaughter of Susannah Martin. The Puritan leader Cotton Mather called her one of the most ''impudent, scurrilous, wicked creatures in the world.''

Ms. Worrell said: ''I want to make sure that people know she was not a witch. History will now record her as being what she really was.''

Ms. Worrell said she felt pity for her distant ancestor, who could have lived had she admitted to being a witch.