Time: Mon Jul 14 21:37:18 1997
by primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id VAA15693;
Mon, 14 Jul 1997 21:23:11 -0700 (MST)
by usr01.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id VAA13567;
Mon, 14 Jul 1997 21:23:01 -0700 (MST)
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 1997 21:22:40 -0700
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: Ray's Gun Didn't Kill Dr. Martin Luther King (fwd)
<snip>
>
>Ray's Gun Didn't Kill MLK
>Associated Press
>July 11, 1997
>
> MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Most of the test bullets fired from
> a rifle belonging to James Earl Ray had marks
> different from the slug that killed Martin Luther
> King Jr., a judge said Friday morning.
>
> "This comparison revealed that the gross and unique
> characteristic signature left on the 12 test bullets
> by the James Earl Ray rifle was not present on the
> death bullet," Criminal Court Judge Joe Brown said.
>
> Brown commented at the opening of a hearing where
> Ray's lawyers asked for additional tests on the rifle
> to try to reinforce the findings from recent test
> firings at the University of Rhode Island.
>
> Ray's lawyers hope the tests will pave the way for a
> trial for Ray, who is serving a 99-year sentence in a
> Nashville prison for the 1968 assassination of King.
> Ray confessed but recanted days later, saying the
> admission was made only to avoid the death penalty.
>
> His guilty plea has been upheld eight times by state
> and federal courts.
>
> William Pepper, one of Ray's lawyers, told Brown the
> FBI test-fired bullets from Ray's gun shorty after
> the killing, but never provided them to Ray's legal
> team. He said they could be key to determining
> whether Ray's gun fired the fatal bullet.
>
> "That evidence should be here and should be made
> available to us," he said.
>
> In Rhode Island, criminalists fired Ray's gun into a
> tank of water, then had them analyzed under a
> powerful microscope to compare markings on them to
> the bullet removed from King.
>
> Robert Hathaway oversaw the tests and was to testify
> at the hearing. Before he took the stand, Brown
> shared some of the preliminary findings.
>
> "For ... 12 test bullets ... analysis revealed that
> there was a unique and gross characteristic that was
> common to each of these test bullets. This
> characteristic appears to be the signature of a rare
> defect in the bore of the James Earl Ray rifle," he
> said.
>
> Prosecutors said they had not been provided with a
> written account of the tests, and Pepper acknowledged
> one had not been made yet.
>
> The .30-06 hunting rifle Ray bought in Alabama and
> brought to Memphis was found near the murder scene
> with his fingerprints on it. He contends it was
> dropped there to frame him.
>
> The rifle and death bullet were tested by the FBI and
> a U.S. House committee in the 1960s and 1970s, but
> those tests could not prove beyond a scientific doubt
> that it was the murder weapon.
>
> The committee concluded in 1978 that Ray killed King
> but may have been helped by others before or after
> the shooting.
>
> Meanwhile, a lawyer Ray is planning to ask the
> governor to release his client from prison because he
> is dying of liver disease.
>
> "He's got a terminal illness, so he should be allowed
> to get out," said attorney Andrew Hall, who is
> preparing a petition seeking clemency from Gov. Don
> Sundquist.
>
> Hall said the petition argues that Ray is not a
> danger to society and that he is dying. In the past
> 10 years, Tennessee governors have exercised their
> clemency powers four times.
>
> By The Associated Press
>
<snip>
========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell : Counselor at Law, federal witness
B.A., Political Science, UCLA; M.S., Public Administration, U.C. Irvine
tel: (520) 320-1514: machine; fax: (520) 320-1256: 24-hour/day-night
email: [address in tool bar] : using Eudora Pro 3.0.3 on 586 CPU
website: http://www.supremelaw.com : visit the Supreme Law Library now
ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech, at its best
Tucson, Arizona state : state zone, not the federal zone
Postal Zone 85719/tdc : USPS delays first class w/o this
As agents of the Most High, we came here to establish justice. We shall
not leave, until our mission is accomplished and justice reigns eternal.
========================================================================
[This text formatted on-screen in Courier 11, non-proportional spacing.]
Return to Table of Contents for
Supreme Law School: E-mail