What does Giles Corey do to influence the court (three examples) and what happens to them as a result (three examples)?

First, Giles Corey inadvertently helped the court to get off the ground when he tells Mr. Hale in Act One that his wife reads "strange books" and "hides them" from him.  Further, he mentions that he "tried and tried" to pray the night before and was unable to do it until she "walk[ed] out of the house."  Once his wife left, he could pray again.  The "stoppage of prayer" is an phenomenon relevant to witchcraft,...

First, Giles Corey inadvertently helped the court to get off the ground when he tells Mr. Hale in Act One that his wife reads "strange books" and "hides them" from him.  Further, he mentions that he "tried and tried" to pray the night before and was unable to do it until she "walk[ed] out of the house."  Once his wife left, he could pray again.  The "stoppage of prayer" is an phenomenon relevant to witchcraft, and Hale seems to become immediately suspicious.  As a result of Corey's words, his wife is later taken into custody, questioned, and convicted of witchcraft.  In Act Three, he comes to court to try to plead her case, but he is denied entry.  She is later executed.

Second, in Act Three, Corey brings a deposition which claims that "Thomas Putnam is reaching out for land" and prompting his daughter to accuse men whose property he wants to purchase.  As a result of his refusal to name the man who told him that he heard Putnam say as much, he is arrested, jailed, and later killed.

Third, in Act Four, we learn from Elizabeth Proctor that Corey never would enter a plea -- guilty or not guilty -- and so his trial could not proceed.  He was pressed to death by the court in an attempt to force him to enter a plea.  Because he "died Christian under the law" his "sons will have his farm."  When John Proctor hears this, he begins to consider confessing a lie to the court in order to save his life.  When he eventually rescinds this confession and is executed, we understand that the trials cannot last much longer due to the change in the public's opinion concerning the guilt of the convicted and the court's fear of riots in the town.