WI: James Earl Ray stands trial

What if James Earl Ray had not pleaded guilty to the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. and had instead pleaded Not Guilty and had faced trial? What would the outcome be? Conviction? Acquittal? or a Hung Jury?
 
I think it depends on national attention and how racist Tennessee is.

Will the defense try to seat an all white jury to get 'not guilty' no matter what?
Will the prosecution do a good job or try to throw the case?
 
I think it depends on national attention and how racist Tennessee is.

Will the defense try to seat an all white jury to get 'not guilty' no matter what?
Will the prosecution do a good job or try to throw the case?
It would be a huge story. They guy literally shot MLK, so there's no way he's getting off. In fact the whole plead guilty thing was the defense's idea, since they realized he couldn't win and would get executed when he lost.
 
There wasn't.

James Earl Ray's, who prior to this assassination, most serious offense was mail fraud, for some reason travels all the way to Mexico to buy a military grade sniper rifle, travels all the way back to Memphis and is able to hit King with one perfect kill shot.

He had 0 arms training with such a weapon.

Conspiracy.
 
What if James Earl Ray had not pleaded guilty to the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. and had instead pleaded Not Guilty and had faced trial? What would the outcome be? Conviction? Acquittal? or a Hung Jury?

He exposes a conspiracy and it results in a hung jury.

MLK riots x 1000
 

hipper

Banned
A jury in memphis on December 8th 1999 found against Loyd Jowers "and other unknown co-conspirators," in a wrongful death suit. Brought by the family of MLK

Granted it was only be the standards of a civil trial, but the evidence convinced a jury.

regards

Hipper
 
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CalBear

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James Earl Ray's, who prior to this assassination, most serious offense was mail fraud, for some reason travels all the way to Mexico to buy a military grade sniper rifle, travels all the way back to Memphis and is able to hit King with one perfect kill shot.

He had 0 arms training with such a weapon.

Conspiracy.

Wow.

This is one of the less well thought out conspiracy theories I've seen here.

Learn some facts. As a pump primer, Ray had TWO Armed Robbery Convictions and bought the weapon (a deer rifle) in Alabama.

You'll have the time since you are kicked for a week.
 
Wow.

This is one of the less well thought out conspiracy theories I've seen here.

Learn some facts. As a pump primer, Ray had TWO Armed Robbery Convictions and bought the weapon (a deer rifle) in Alabama.

You'll have the time since you are kicked for a week.

From what I remember the investigators could not match the bullet to Ray's rifle and that the results were inconclusive. I think a good lawyer would have pointed this out to the jury.
 
What about Raoul? And I never understood why Ray went all the way to the UK. Low life loser like him, you'd think he would just try to hide out in some hick town in anywhere, USA.
 

CalBear

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A jury in memphis on December 8th 1999 found against Loyd Jowers "and other unknown co-conspirators," in a wrongful death suit. Brought by the family of MLK

Granted it was only be the standards of a civil trial, but the evidence convinced a jury.

regards

Hipper

Well, let's take a look at that, shall we?

The SAME attorney who represented Ray represented the King family members who filed the suit. The Government did not even present witnesses or mount a defense. ONE individual, Loyd Jowers, testified that he was part of the conspiracy. He was later exposed, as having come up with the story in order to sell it (for $300,000), something his primary backer assisted in to get money to pay off her taxes. The evidence (a term used ever so loosely) was not just hearsay, but 2nd and 3rd hand hearsay. There are accounts that indicate that some of the jurors actually fell asleep during the presentation of the "evidence".

It is completely understandable that the King family would desire the death of Dr. King to be more than "a ten cent white boy killing a million dollar black man" as James Bevel, one of Dr. King's friends and co leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, memorably stated. That however, is what happened. A career criminal and unabashed racist killed one of the great political figures in American History.

Just as is the case with both Kennedy assassins, a lone nut decided to take an action that, in any fair world, would have failed, just as several other lone lunatics, ranging from John Hinkely to Lynette Fromm failed. Lone nuts are, tragically, far from rare. These days they often are called "lone wolf terrorists" a term that often inflates their actual actions/planned actions.

It isn't how things should work, but it is how they do, not just in the 1960s, not just in the 20th Century, not just in the U.S., but throughout history. Crazy can work more often than we like to admit.
 
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CalBear

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From what I remember the investigators could not match the bullet to Ray's rifle and that the results were inconclusive. I think a good lawyer would have pointed this out to the jury.

A good attorney would have.

The fact however, is that a soft tip round from a hunting rifle tends to be extremely difficult to match after it has passed into a human being. Even rifle caliber FMJ tend to get badly damaged, especially at relatively low range (207 feet/63 meters), when the round still retains most of its velocity. In this case it was a Remington-Peters soft nose bullet. the bullet fragmented (multiple fragments were recovered during the autopsy) The round struck several bones, including the lower jaw and cervical vertebrate while traveling horizontally through Dr. King's body.

It is worth remembering that this was in the pre-CSI era (a program that has made life hell on prosecutors with its magical evidence gathering abilities). It was also in the South, where many people hunted (still do, but in 1968 the percentages were even higher), jurors knew what a bullet did when it hit bone.

The best the defense could have come up with was that the rifle was not, by itself, proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

What about Raoul? And I never understood why Ray went all the way to the UK. Low life loser like him, you'd think he would just try to hide out in some hick town in anywhere, USA.

Raoul was a fantasy. Pure make believe. Ray was a career criminal, he knew how to spin a story.

Ray was also a good deal more savvy than sometimes understood. He managed to escape from prison THREE TIMES (he was on the lam when he killed Dr. King). He had spent time in both Mexico and Canada, and had a well established desire to go to white controlled Rhodesia (hard core racist, he refused transfer from state prison to a honor farm i.e. easy time, because it was integrated) something he had talked about in prison years before the assassination.

Shooting someone standing still from 207 feet away with a .30-06 is like falling off a log, especially when the shooter has even basic military shooting instruction. It took no special skill. Anyone who wanted to make that shot, assuming they knew how to load the weapon, disengage the safety, and pull the trigger could make it. A trained shooter could manage it with an 8" barrel pistol, any hunter could do it in their sleep.

Ray did it. Everything else was pure manipulation.

He plead guilty because he wanted to avoid execution, back when execution wasn't a 30 year circus of appeals, but when you went to the death chamber within a couple years. He also wanted to stay off Death Row. You do not escape from Death Row, the system pretty much assures that. Regular prison? Well he did it twice before the assassination and managed it a third time AFTERWARDS.
 
The evidence against Ray was strong, He would have been convicted. The people with King said they saw a rifle pointing out of a window in the rooming house next to the motel. Witnesses outside the rooming house told police that after the assassination a man matching Ray's description left the rooming house threw away a blanket in a trash can and then drove away in a white Mustang. The police looked in the blanket and found a rifle with Ray;s fingerprints. They dusted the window where the witnesses saw the rifle and found Ray's fingerprints. A white Mustang with Ray's fingerprints was found in Atlanta. In 47 years no one had found evidence of a conspiracy. The House Assassination Select Committee's evidence for a conspiracy is very weak. They noted that in the one political act of his life Ray volunteered for George Wallace's presidential campaign. Excuse me, a White racist supporting George Wallace is evidence of a conspiracy. The other piece of evidence they had involved a trip to New Orleans Ray made. While he was living in Los Angeles, a dancer at a club Ray frequented asked Ray to go to New Orleans and pick up her children. Ray probably assuming she was coming, agreed to do it. She instead introduced her brother who would accompany him. The brother, who had a criminal record and was know to lie down on his lawn and look for flying saucers told the committee that he thought Ray met with someone in New Orleans. The committee apparently never heard from people who remembered Ray saying he was going to meet with his brother in New Orleans.
 
Calbear said:
You do not escape from Death Row, the system pretty much assures that.
For the most part you are correct but some escapes from various death rows have occurred in the United State. Six inmates broke out of the Virginia death row at Mecklenberg in 1984. An escape from the Texas death row took place in 1998, and a Georgia inmate busted out of death row the night before his scheduled execution with three other convicts in 1980. So, you know, not a perfect record.
 
There is some deal where like the day after the city of Memphis cut down these bushes where the shot (or a shot) was supposed to be fired from. This may have simply been an F U to King since city officials were angry about the sanitation workers' strike.

Or, it may have been part of something more.
 
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Saphroneth

Banned
For the most part you are correct but some escapes from various death rows have occurred in the United State. Six inmates broke out of the Virginia death row at Mecklenberg in 1984. An escape from the Texas death row took place in 1998, and a Georgia inmate busted out of death row the night before his scheduled execution with three other convicts in 1980. So, you know, not a perfect record.
And how long were they on the lam?
 
F. Lee Bailey was offered the chance to defend James Earl Ray, but turned it down. How would the trial have gone if F. Lee Bailey had been Ray's attorney?
 
What about Raoul? And I never understood why Ray went all the way to the UK. Low life loser like him, you'd think he would just try to hide out in some hick town in anywhere, USA.

I actually live in Earls Court, where Ray stayed for part of his time in London. It's gone way upmarket since then but it's still got a tinge of the bad old days, when it was filled with dingy hotels and grimy bedsits.

It's easy to be pseudo-poetical about it but for a guy living on the margins of society, it was almost like he was coming home.
 
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