He was executed by hanging for charges of sodomy after being wrongfully convicted for an alleged sexual act with an animal, in which it was erroneously claimed that Spencer had fathered a female pig's offspring.
[3] He was open about his lack of faith, never praying in the years of being in Connecticut and only reading the Bible when forced to by his master.
[2][4] When a sow gave birth to a malformed, one-eyed piglet it was considered a manifestation of God's proof of Spencer's sins.
[5] He was charged with "prophane, atheistical carriage, in unfaithfulness and stubbornness to his master, a course of notorious lying, filthiness, scoffing at the ordinances, ways and people of God".
[7] On August 28, 2015, in a review of old New Haven criminal cases by Superior Court judge John C. Blue, George Spencer was granted a posthumous pardon for his convictions, with Blue ruling that Spencer's confession was forced and that the alleged crime of fathering a piglet was "biologically impossible".