The MLK Case: A Timeline
Here are some key dates leading to conspiracy verdict on the lawsuit filed by Martin Luther King Jr.'s family:
- April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. is shot in Memphis.
- June 1968: James Earl Ray is captured in London.
- March 1969: Ray pleads guilty and is sentenced to 99 years in prison. He recants three days later.
- 1978: The House Select Committee on Assassinations concludes that Ray was the shooter, but that a St. Louis-based group of bigots may have helped him before or after.
- 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. Ray is acquitted.
- 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. Prosecutors discount the claim.
- April 1994: A Memphis judge allows Ray's attorney to call witnesses and present evidence to try to prove Ray's innocence. The King family supports Ray's efforts to get a trial.
- May 1995: The state Supreme Court rules that Ray has exhausted his legal remedies. His guilty plea has been upheld eight times by state and federal courts.
- February 1997; In ruling that bolstered efforts for a trial, a Memphis judge rules new technology could show whether Ray's rifle killed King.
- May 1997: Ballistics tests prove inconclusive.
- 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. The state prosecutor in Memphis also says a reinvestigation found no credible evidence anyone other than Ray was involved.
- April 23, 1998: Ray dies of liver disease in prison.
- Oct. 2, 1998: The King family files a wrongful death suit against Jowers and "other unknown conspirators."
- Nov. 15, 1999: Trial begins on the King family's suit.
- Dec. 8, 1999: Jury rules King was the victim of a murder conspiracy.
- June 2000: The U.S. Justice Department says there is still no proof that anyone other than James Earl Ray was behind the murder of the civil rights leader.
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