#James earl ray trial
#James earl ray tv

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed Justice Department says there is still no proof that anyone other than James Earl Ray was behind the murder of the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.

#James earl ray trial

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. His father was James Ray, who, when he worked at all, which was. He then spent almost 30 years vainly attempting to win the right to the trial he had forsworn. James Earl Ray, the oldest of nine children, was born on March 10, 1928, in a furnished room in a red-light district in Alton, Ill. and was sentenced to 99 years in prison on March 10, 1969.Three days later he recanted his plea.

April 1994: A Memphis judge allows Ray's attorney to call witnesses and present evidence to try to prove Ray's innocence. American criminal James Earl Ray (19281998) pled guilty to assassinating civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr.

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.

#James earl ray tv

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. After this, Ray was on the run and was captured in the UK. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. 1978: The House Select Committee on Assassinations concludes that Ray was the shooter, but that a St. James Earl Ray (Ma April 23, 1998) was an American fugitive convicted for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr.March 1969: Ray pleads guilty and is sentenced to 99 years in prison.June 1968: James Earl Ray is captured in London. James Earl Ray walked through the gates of Brushy Mountain for the first time March 21, 1970, one year into a 99-year sentence and not quite two years since the death of King, gunned down by a.Others may have been involved as there is no evidence Ray was a racial extremist or a marksman.Here are some key dates leading to conspiracy verdict on the lawsuit filed by Martin Luther King Jr.'s family: Just like JFK, conspiracy theories abound. He was traced to a hotel in the West End and police followed him to Heathrow, where he was arrested trying to fly to Brussels.įollowing extradition, Ray admitted murder and was sentenced to 99 years.īut after his trial he denied any involvement right until he died in jail in 1998. Using an alias, Ray booked a flight from Toronto to London. The dulcet voice of the gospel singer and civil-rights activist Mahalia Jackson - performed “Take My Hand, Precious Lord” at his funeral - fills the small corridor where visitors can gaze into Room 306.įorensic experts found Ray's fingerprints all over the the package and he became America's most wanted man. That fact is marked in the Lorraine Hotel today home to the National Civil Rights Museumįilled with artifacts, films, oral histories, and interactive media, the exhibits guide visitors through five centuries of history, from slave resistance to the numerous protests of the American civil-rights movement. Today, Martin Luther King's legacy is best symbolised by the fact that the United States elected its first black president. Yet he was never distracted from his quest of winning equality for the black community, and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. King's activities made him the target of arrests, police beatings, death threats and a night bombing of his home. A year later Congress passed the Civil Rights Act and, in 1965, the Voting Rights Act, but realisation of the dream was still far off.