![]() ![]() Ray’s motion was denied, as were his dozens of other requests for a trial during the next 29 years.ĭuring the 1990s, the widow and children of Martin Luther King Jr. On April 4, 1968, he said, he realized that he was to be the fall guy for the King assassination and fled to Canada. He claimed that in 1967, a mysterious man named “Raoul” had approached him and recruited him into a gunrunning enterprise. Three days later, he attempted to withdraw his guilty plea, claiming he was innocent of King’s assassination and had been set up as a patsy in a larger conspiracy. Extradited to the United States, Ray stood before a Memphis judge in March 1969 and pleaded guilty to King’s murder in order to avoid the electric chair. Rhodesia, now called Zimbabwe, was at the time ruled by an oppressive and internationally condemned white minority government. He was trying to fly to Belgium, with the eventual goal, he later admitted, of reaching Rhodesia. On June 8, Scotland Yard investigators arrested Ray at a London airport. The FBI eventually determined that he had obtained a Canadian passport under a false identity, which at the time was relatively easy. In May 1968, a massive manhunt for Ray began. A two-bit criminal, Ray escaped a Missouri prison in April 1967 while serving a sentence for a holdup. During the next several weeks, the rifle, eyewitness reports, and fingerprints on the weapon all implicated a single suspect: escaped convict James Earl Ray. 30-06 hunting rifle was found on the sidewalk beside a rooming house one block from the Lorraine Motel. The evening of King’s murder, a Remington. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to pay tribute to King’s casket as it passed by in a wooden farm cart drawn by two mules. On April 9, King was laid to rest in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. As word of the assassination spread, riots broke out in cities all across the United States and National Guard troops were deployed in Memphis and Washington, D.C. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.” And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop … And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.On April 3, back in Memphis, King gave his last sermon, saying, “We’ve got some difficult days ahead. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed Justice Department says there is still no proof that anyone other than James Earl Ray was behind the murder of the civil rights leader. 8, 1999: Jury rules King was the victim of a murder conspiracy. 15, 1999: Trial begins on the King family's suit. 2, 1998: The King family files a wrongful death suit against Jowers and "other unknown conspirators." April 23, 1998: Ray dies of liver disease in prison.The state prosecutor in Memphis also says a reinvestigation found no credible evidence anyone other than Ray was involved. March 1998: The judge who allowed the gun tests, Joe Brown, is removed from the case because appeals judges say he appears biased in Ray's favor.May 1997: Ballistics tests prove inconclusive.February 1997 In ruling that bolstered efforts for a trial, a Memphis judge rules new technology could show whether Ray's rifle killed King.His guilty plea has been upheld eight times by state and federal courts. May 1995: The state Supreme Court rules that Ray has exhausted his legal remedies.The King family supports Ray's efforts to get a trial. April 1994: A Memphis judge allows Ray's attorney to call witnesses and present evidence to try to prove Ray's innocence.December 1993: Former businessman Loyd Jowers tells ABC he was paid by a former associate to hire a hit man to kill King, and it was not Ray.March 1993: A mock trial for Ray is held on the HBO cable TV channel, raising many of the conspiracy theories later presented to the jury that heard the King family's suit.Louis-based group of bigots may have helped him before or after. 1978: The House Select Committee on Assassinations concludes that Ray was the shooter, but that a St.March 1969: Ray pleads guilty and is sentenced to 99 years in prison.June 1968: James Earl Ray is captured in London.Here are some key dates leading to conspiracy verdict on the lawsuit filed by Martin Luther King Jr.'s family: ![]()
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