MLK Murder Case Study: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Case Study: MLK Murder. (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.). During the time of Dr. Martin King, Jr’s murder, James Earl Ray, the assailant, was living in a nearby rooming house named Bessie Brewer's. With the use of a high-powered rifle with a scope, fired one fatal shot that took the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. James Earl Ray immediately fled the scene of the crime by foot, which was the residence of Bessie Brewer’s place. Ray hurriedly got into his white Mustang and left. The police later found a package containing a scope-mounted rifle and a radio. Also, in the package was a receipt, a pair of binoculars, along with a few cans of beer. A week later after King’s shooting death, the white Mustang was located and abandoned in Atlanta, Georgia.

King with a sentence of 99 years. This crime was plagued with a series of conspiracy theories, nonetheless, the fingerprints on the murder weapon made Ray the murder suspect (Saferstein, 2015). During the time Ray assassinated Dr. King, he was already an escapee from a prison in Missouri for doing time for a holdup. The murder had taken place approximately a block away from the Lorraine Hotel. A massive manhunt for Ray began on May 1968, which ended up with Ray being caught in London’s airport. Ray was trying to flee the United States by flying to Belgium and on the way to Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe. In March 1969, James Earl Ray’s trial was held in Memphis, Tennessee with a 99-year guilty plea which saved him from getting the electric chair. Three days after his trial and guilty plea, Ray had pleaded innocent and tried to blame someone by the name of Raoul as part of a conspiracy plot against him. Ray tried to convince authorities that he was set up as a fall guy for Dr. King’s murder and was supposed to escape to Canada. Ray’s request for new trials during the span of 29 years was turned down by the courts. During the 90’s era, Dr. King’s widow, Coretta Scott-King, along with her