Ephraim Kingsbury Avery

Illustrated portrait of Ephraim Kingsbury Avery, from Avery's book, The correct, full and impartial report of the trial of Rev. Ephraim K. Avery, 1833. Ephraim Kingsbury Avery (December 18, 1799 – October 23, 1869) was a Methodist minister who was among the first clergymen tried for murder in the United States. Avery is often cited as "the first", although it is thought there is at least one case that precedes Avery's.

The murder On December 21, 1832, farmer John Durfee of Tiverton, Rhode Island, discovered a woman's corpse hanging by her neck from a rope tied to a stackpole used to dry hay. Investigators identified the woman as 30-year-old factory worker Sarah Maria Cornell, of Fall River, Massachusetts. The family from whom Sarah Cornell rented a room discovered among her personal effects a note written by Cornell and dated the same day as her death:

"If I should be missing, enquire of the Rev. Mr. Avery of Bristol, he will know where I am."

Other suspicious and incriminating letters came to light, as well as a conversation she had had with a doctor indicating the married Avery was the father of her unborn child. A coroner's jury was convened in Tiverton before any autopsy had been performed. This jury found that Cornell had "committed suicide by hanging herself upon a stake ... and was influenced to commit said crime by the wicked conduct of a married man."

After the autopsy was performed, however, it was discovered that Cornell had been four months pregnant at the time of her death. A second coroner's jury was convened, this time in Bristol, Rhode Island. This jury overruled the earlier finding of suicide and accused Ephraim Kingsbury Avery, a married Methodist minister, as the "principal or accessory" in her death. Avery was quickly arrested on a charge of murder, but just as quickly set free on his own recognizance.

An 1833 print illustrating the widely held belief that Avery was guilty despite his acquittal. One demon asks, "How will this be managed if it should go to a jury?" Another replies, "A Jury, ye young fools, is nothing. What's to be done with Public Opinion."

Cornell's pregnancy led another Methodist minister to reject the responsibility of burying her the second time (she already once been exhumed for autopsy).