James Earl Ray

James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998) was an American criminal convicted of the assassination of civil rights and anti-war activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ray was convicted on March 10, 1969, after entering a guilty plea to forgo a jury trial. Had he been found guilty by jury trial, he would have been eligible for the death penalty. He was sentenced to ninety-nine years in prison. He later recanted his confession and tried unsuccessfully to gain a new trial. He died in prison of hepatitis C. James Earl Ray came from a poor family in Alton, Illinois, and left school at age fifteen. He joined the US Army at the close of World War II and served in Germany. He was convicted of his first crime, a burglary in California, in...