Most of those who believe that Mr. Ray was guilty probably believe he was convicted in a trial. That’s not true. He never got a trial.

Most of those who know he never got a trial probably believe that he confessed to the crime. That also is not true. Judge Joe B. Brown testified in the conspiracy trial that

“Mr. Ray had never confessed to the killing of Dr. King, but had entered what is known as an Alford versus North Carolina plea. . . . [Y]ou may cop out and plead guilty even if you are not guilty if that is in your best interest if the State has some case that they can go forward on.”

This plea of “legally guilty” was not a confession.  He faced the death penalty and knew he did not have the resources to put on an adequate defense.

Rev. James Lawson testified at the conspiracy trial about Mr. Ray’s treatment in the county jail:

“[T]hey fixed up a special cell with twenty-four-hour surveillance, no privacy, twenty-four-hour lights. . . . I was astonished.  I said to myself, what is going on here?  This is the man; why are they torturing him?  That was brainwashing from Korean experience according to the things I read from our GI’s. If they’ve got the evidence about him,  why not just simply go to trial?

“Then when they started the plea-bargaining business, I said to myself, here is this justice system, the most important American perhaps other than the President of the United States has been killed, and they are going to to have a plea-bargaining instead of a full-scale trial so that a court of law can tell us, can give us a full transcript of what that murder is about. . . .

“[This treatment] was making him sick, keeping him from being able to sleep, therefore keeping him from being able to deal with what was going on and what he needed to do for his own defense.”

After many years in prison, Mr. Ray contracted liver disease from a blood transfusion in the prison hospital.  His lawyer, Dr. William Pepper, arranged that he could get a free liver transplant in Pittsburgh.  Tennessee authorities refused to allow him to travel, in effect ordering a death sentence.

In his last days, Mr. Ray was offered the opportunity to die outside of prison if he would only confess that he killed Dr. King.  He died in prison.