Jean Calas, a Protestant merchant from Toulouse, was sentenced by the Toulouse Parliament to torture on the wheel and was executed on March 10, 1762, on the unsubstantiated accusation of having murdered one of his sons who was reputed to have converted to Catholicism. Voltaire, informed of the “affair,” had the conviction overturned and Calas was exonerated in 1765. This affair remains the symbol of partisan injustice.

Article : The Calas affair