The Martin Luther King family does not believe that James Earl Ray was the shooter.  In 1999 they prosecuted a lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Shelby County, Tennessee alleging that Dr. King had been killed in a conspiracy, and elements of the local, state, and federal governments had been involved. Dr. William Pepper, an old friend of Dr. King, was the family’s trial attorney.

More than 70 witnesses appeared in 13 days of testimony.  The jury took one hour to find that Dr. King had been killed in a conspiracy involving elements of the government.

The transcript can be found here: http://www.thekingcenter.org/assassination-conspiracy-trial

The transcript contains 423,000 words, and can be tedious reading in parts.  This website hosts a summary that has converted the testimony to a simple narrative for easier reading. In coming months a more streamlined and more chronologically ordered summary will be provided.

Mrs. King said after the trial that “[t]he jury was clearly convinced by the extensive evidence that was presented during the trial that, in addition to Mr. Jowers, the conspiracy of the Mafia, local, state and federal government agencies, were deeply involved in the assassination of my husband. The jury also affirmed overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame.”