num_pages: 320
description: James Earl Ray never had a trial. A few days after he was coerced into pleading guilty, he withdrew his guilty plea. Tennessee law provides Ray with the right to a trial, but his eight requests for a trial have been denied. Now Martin Luther King, Jr.'s widow, Coretta Scott King, has joined Ray in seeking a trial to set the record straight. Her son, Dexter King, told a Tennessee court on February 20, 1997: "It is right, for the sake of truth and justice that there be a trial to get at the truth. Nothing but the truth will set us free." The rifle that Ray admits he brought to Memphis in April, 1968 was never test-fired; its bullets were never compared to the bullet that killed Martin Luther King, Jr. Although the FBI stated that the bullet was too damaged to test, ballistics experts agree that newly developed technology, a scanning electron microscope, can determine whether the rifle with Ray's fingerprints was the weapon. The rifle with Ray's fingerprints on it was carefully left on Main Street in Memphis in a box, along with Ray's prison radio. The radio had Ray's identification number etched into it. Would an assassin take time to leave incriminating evidence before fleeing the scene? In 1994 a former federal judge and a jury from Memphis heard attorneys present a televised mock trial of James Earl Ray. A former prosecutor presented the case and Ray was defended by an attorney of his choice. The jury found Ray "not guilty." The real killer has never been apprehended. After reading this book you too will ask "Who Killed Martin Luther King, Jr.?"
language: English
title: Who Killed Martin Luther King Jr.?
titlecomplete: Who Killed Martin Luther King Jr.?
characters: Martin Luther King Jr., James Earl Ray, Raoul
ratings_count: 27
places: The United States of America
publisher: Da Capo Press