FOIA
NEWS ARTICLE: RAY'S TRIAL TO OPEN TUESDAY IN THE SLAYING OF DR. KING
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
00459941
Release Decision:
RIFPUB
Original Classification:
U
Document Page Count:
1
Document Creation Date:
June 6, 2025
Document Release Date:
June 12, 2025
Publication Date:
October 11, 1968
File:
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 NEWS ARTICLE RAYS TRIAL T[16505693].pdf | 165.9 KB |
Body:
104-10129-10382 &4,� PHIL M. CANALE JR. The prosecutor W. PRESTON BATTLE The judge :1-2&:1121 A HaS 'NO OBJEC1 \Of:4 le IDECLASSIF C AT Crti AN,,V3p ELEAZ;E(-)f- THIS DOCiNE JAMES EARL RAY _ The defendant Ray's Trial to Open Tuesday In the Slaying of Dr. King' � MEMPHIS, Tenn. (UPI) � James Earl Ray goes on trial Itesday tor the saying April 4 of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and � in one of the strangest cases on record � the question of whether he did or did not kill the civil rights leader is almost secondary. The focal question is: Was the slaying of King the isolated vi- olent act of one man, as the state charges, or the murderous fruition of a conspiratorial plot, with Ray set up as a decoy, as the defense contends? Three times in five years an assassin's bullets have cut down national leaders � first Presi- dent John F. Kennedy, then Martin Luther King, then Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. This is the first time the al- leged killer has been brought to trial Lee Harvey Oswald, accused of slaying President Kennedy, was killed before he could be fried. Sirhan B. Sirhan, the al- leged killer of Sen. Kennedy, is due to come to trial in Los An- geles next month. � The result is that all the nag- ging doubts about "plot" now focus on the first man to face the assassination charge in open court, a man whose background as habitual criminal, bumbling thief and escaped robber raises the big questions: Why would a man like James Earl Ray murder such a man as Martin Luther King? Was there a conspiracy and if so, who were the conspirators and where are they now? There is a small television camera in the hall outside Coun- ty Courtroom 3, where the trial will be held. Anybody who goes in that courtroom has to be re- corded, picture and voice, by a camera. Memphis is not taking chances; it is determined that one way or another this case will be settled, and that everybody involved stays alive until it is. The- jury will settle only whether Ray was the sniper who just before dusk, -at 6:01 p.m. CST Thursday, April 4, put a .30-36 caliber rifle slug through the throat of the Nobel peace prize winner. A decision is not likely before Christmas. Whether the question of con- spiracy will be answered may depend on Ray himself, if he takeathe stand, if he knows any- thing and, if he does, whether he will talk. � Clark Sees No Plot � � The governmentsa alliere is no puzzle to inirav . Ramsey Clark assured the world the day after King was shot that one man, acting alone, was re- sponsible. Prosecutor Phil Canale, the Shelby County (Memphis) attor- ney general who has not argued to a jury in seven years, has had his case drawn for him by the Justice Department and the FBL That case is this; � , Ray, alias Eric Starve Galt, a man with no known history of deep or violent racial prejlidiee, acting alone or a motiveet unknown, shot King as the ido- cate of nonviolence stookdThe -second-floor balcony. of '�the black-owned Lorraine Motel in downtown Memphis. But chief defense counsel Ar- thur J. Hanes Sr., 51, will tell the jury he intends to prove a "_Communist, left-wine consnira-
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