James Earl Ray

James Earl Ray, born on March 10, 1928, was an American fugitive whose life took a notorious turn when he was convicted of assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Following the assassination, Ray fled to London, intending to live in exile in Rhodesia, but was apprehended there.

In 1969, Ray entered a guilty plea, thereby waiving his right to a jury trial and the potential for a death sentence. He was subsequently sentenced to ninety-nine years in prison. Despite numerous attempts to retract his guilty plea and seek a jury trial, Ray's efforts were met with failure.

Although Ray did not formally affiliate with any political party, his views aligned with segregationist ideologies. He was a vocal supporter of George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama, during Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign with the American Independent Party.

Ray passed away on April 23, 1998, at the age of seventy, in Nashville Memorial Hospital, Madison, Tennessee, due to complications from kidney disease and liver failure linked to hepatitis C, after spending twenty-nine years behind bars. In 1994, Loyd Jowers, a restaurant owner, claimed involvement in a conspiracy to assassinate King, suggesting that Ray was a scapegoat. A civil trial in Memphis in 1999 concluded that Jowers was liable for the assassination and that King was a victim of a conspiracy, a claim supported by the King family, who have consistently maintained Ray's innocence, despite the U.S. Department of Justice disputing this in 2000.