Ephraim Avery Trial: 1833

Mason and his colleagues argued that the pastor was not present when the murder happened. However, the largest and most controversial part of Avery's defense was its attack on the victim's moral character. Sarah Cornell was described by one of the reverend's attorneys as "utterly abandoned, unprincipled, profligate." It was brought up that Cornell had been expelled from the Methodist Church for fornication. Numerous witnesses testified that she was promiscuous, that she had once been treated for venereal disease, that she had often threatened suicide, and that she frequently acted in a deranged manner.

Medical experts also debated whether Cornell's unborn baby was conceived in August, 1832, or at an earlier date. Topics such as Cornell's menstrual cycles and female anatomy were discussed in detail. Still, due to the Puritan standards of modesty that existed then in Rhode Island, it was sometimes difficult for the lawyers to get the testimony they needed. For example, when one of the women who examined Cornell's body was asked about the condition of the corpse, she refused to answer and angrily replied, "I never heard such questions asked of nobody." Indeed, some testimony embarrassed one of the court reporters to such an extent that he simply omitted it from his version of the transcript.

On Sunday, June 2, 1833, after considering the evidence for 16 hours, the jury found Ephraim Avery "Not Guilty." The minister was promptly released and he returned to his pastoral duties, but the public was convinced that a great injustice had been done. Contempt and hatred followed him wherever he went. At more than one location Avery was hanged or burned in effigy and once, when a mob in Boston recognized him, he was almost lynched. Many people were also angry at the Methodist Church, so to calm the unrest, the church's New England Conference conducted its own trial. Avery was acquitted in that proceeding as well, but that did not lessen the controversy.

To escape the public's eye, the Reverend Ephraim Avery finally left the ministry and went to Ohio with his family in 1836, where he lived out the last 33 years of his life as a farmer. In contrast, Cornell's grave was visited for many years by hundreds as if it were a shrine, but as time has passed, the crowds dwindled until most forgot about the woman from Fall River and the significance her murder had in the social history of the United States.