On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee and was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. The shooter was believed to be James Earl Ray. James Earl Ray did kill Martin Luther King, because of his confession, physical evidence, and opportunity motive. Within a few days of confessing, James claimed he was innocent and starting saying how a guy named “Raoul” set him up. There wasn’t enough evidence to prove that a “Raoul” existed and had shot Martin Luther King Jr, which is why James was still charged guilty. He had bought a gun previously and went back to exchange it. For that reason, he had looked even more sketchy and guilty. “But within a few days of confessing, Ray began to claim his innocence, arguing …show more content…
James previous felonies did not help with convincing them of his story. “..a career criminal who’d been convicted at least four separate times for robbing a cafe, a taxi, a post office, and a grocery store.” With his bad record, it didn’t suit him at all for him to say that he is innocent. These previous felonies were not good at all for backing up his story. With this being said, James didn’t have proof that he wasn’t the killer but never stopped trying to prove otherwise. James even had Martin Luther King’s son support Ray’s claim of innocence during a televised prison encounter. Even with that, they refused to reopen up the case and Ray ended up dying on April 23, 1998. People also believed that James wanted “an-all white America.” James was also arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport trying to flee. Martin Luther King’s widow wife had said in a press conference before, “There is abundant evidence of a major high level conspiracy … The Mafia, local, state and federal government agencies, were deeply involved in the assassination of my husband … Mr Ray was set up to take the blame.” She believed this until the day she died in 2006. After James escape from prison, he had robbed a