The parliament of the Swiss canton of Glarus decided unanimously to exonerate Goeldi as a victim of "judicial murder", said Josef Schwitter, a government spokesman.

Several thousand people, mainly women, were executed for witchcraft between the 14th and 18th centuries in Switzerland and elsewhere in Europe. Yet Goeldi's trial and beheading in the village of Mollis took place at a time when witch trials had largely disappeared from the continent.

Goeldi, a maidservant in the house of prominent burgher Johann Jakob Tschudi, was convicted of "spoiling" the family's daughter, causing her to spit pins and have convulsions. Yet Tschudi, a doctor and magistrate, was alleged to have had an affair with Goeldi – and if that had come out, his reputation would have been seriously damaged.

The case was brought to light through a book by local journalist Walter Hauser.

The move to exonerate Goeldi came after a long debate in the eastern Swiss region, and was taken after talks with both the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches.

Last year, the canton's executive branch and the Protestant Church council both rejected even considering an exoneration, but the Glarus parliament urged the executive branch to reconsider. In June it did, and asked parliament to ratify Goeldi's exoneration.

The Glarus government said the Protestant Church council, which conducted the trial, had no legal authority and had decided in advance that Goeldi was guilty. She was executed even though the law at the time did not impose the death penalty for non-lethal poisoning.

The exoneration was also an acknowledgment that an unknown number of other innocent people had been killed over the centuries. The government did not assume any responsibility, however, for past errors.