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During his Guilty Plea hearing James Earl Ray stood and addressed the court.
'Your honor, I would like to say something. I don't want to change anything I have said, but I just want to enter one other thing. The only thing that I have to say is that I can't agree with Mr. Clark.'
2 things here - and I asked James about this myself. He said, 'I don't want to change anything I have said,..' What he meant about anything I have said, and he will refer to this again shortly, is that he had said that he was 'legally guilty' as explained to him by his attorney - his attorney had explained it to him this way; James, your an escaped convict and were at the scene, they found the murder weapon (Which was a lie, to this day the gun cannot be proven to be the murder weapon.) and can prove you bought it and it has at least one of your fingerprints.
His attorney went through a litany of evidence and threats to convince James that he would go to the electric chair if the case went to trial (Again a lie. I have went over this case with many defense attorneys and once they see the whole thing they all agree that it would be hard for the prosecution to get a conviction if it went to court.).
James was saying that he pled 'legally guilty' because he was somehow involved without knowing the weakness of the case against him.
The 2nd thing-at this point James said, 'I can't agree with Mr. Clark.' He was talking about Attorney General of the United States Ramsey Clark. Ramsey Clark had been quoted in the press as saying that there was no conspiracy and that James Earl Ray and James alone had shot and killed MLK. Here James is saying that he did not agree that 'there was no conspiracy and that he and he alone had killed MLK'.
It was at this time that Judge Preston Battle (the court) asked, 'Mr. Who?'
James Earl Ray replief, 'Mr. J. Edgar Hoover, I agree with all these stipulations and I am not trying to change anything.'
My note: Judge battle didn't seem to connect AG Ramsey Clark so James added, 'J. Edgar Hoover.'. Both FBI Director and Ramsey Clark had been quoted in the press and on television news as saying that there was no 'conspiracy' and that James and James alone was the assassin. Then James says, 'I agree with all these stipulations and I am not trying to change anything.' He had been told by his attorney that these stipulations his attorney had him sign clearly showed the court that he was pleading 'legally guilty' because he was somehow involved but James understood that he was not pleading guilty to killing MLK himself. He was not trying to change that he was pleading 'legally guilty' to being somehow involved but was telling the court that he didn't agree with J. Edgar Hoover and AG Ramsey Clark's assertion that there was no conspiracy.
Then Judge Battle asks, 'You don't agree with those theories?'
Judge Battle is talking about the theories (theories, because they had not been proven one way or the other) by Hoover and Clark that, 'There was no conspiracy and that James Earl Ray and James Earl Ray alone shot and killed MLK.'
James answers, 'Mr. Canale's, Mr. Clark's, and Mr. J. Edgar Hoover's about the conspiracy. I don't want to add something on that I haven't agreed to in the past.'
This time James adds Mr. Canale. Philip Canale was the prosecutor of the case standing there in court prosecuting James for the crime of killing MLK without anyone else being involved. James is saying here that he did not agree with the charge being brought against him and therefore didn't agree with a guilty plea that did not include a conspiracy and the fact that he believed he was somehow involved but didn't shoot MLK himself. He says, 'I don't want to add something on that I haven't agreed to in the past.' because he had signed stipulations and pled 'legally guilty' in that he was somehow involved and did not shoot MLK himself. What you have here is a person standing up in open court with a jury present saying he thought he was pleading 'legally guilty' to a charge that wasn't before the court.
Think about this, how can a man plead guilty to a charge when he doesn't agree that he is pleading guilty to that charge but instead thinks he is pleading guilty to another charge, 'conspiracy'?
Now Judge battle asks if James was guilty of murder because, 'you killed Dr. Martin Luther King under such circumstances that it would make you legally guilty of murder in the first degree under the law as explained to you by your lawyer. Your answer is still yes? Alright, Sir, that is all, you may swear the jury.'
Judge battle asked the question but got no reply from James because James told me at that point he was confused and really did not understand what was going on, but notice, he did not at that point say, 'yes'. He told me that he did not nod or give any indication that he was then pleading guilty. He said the judge then glanced at him briefly and went to swearing the jury without getting his reply to this final charge because James did not agree with the charges at this point. James had made several attempts to explain that he wasn't pleading guilty to killing MLK himself and the judge was clearly frustrated, James attorney was grasping James shoulder which to James meant for him to shut up and the court was proceeding without James pleading guilty as charged.
This is one of the most important court proceedings of the last century and it is of utmost importance that everyone has the opportunity to learn from it and understand the consequences of having a fair and just court system. We need to be able to trust our courts to render justice. If we sweep this under the rug it can only be regretful to us all.
At the very least all people who believe in fairness in our justice system should recognize that a Memphis, Tennessee civil court trial with 12 jurors found there had been a conspiracy in the assassination of Martin Luthe King Jr. We must not forget that James Earl Ray was never tried and found guilty but instead he spent almost 30 years going before the courts with pleas for a trial. People expect to able to go before a jury of their peers when charged with a crime. This is a fundamental and basic right we all have and yet James Earl Ray was denied this.
If you'd like to read the court transcript yourself CLICK HERE or go to:
http://garyrevel.wordpress.com/jamesearlray_guiltyplea/
Oh, by the way, this day, March 10th, was James Earl Ray's birthday. Happy Birthday James
Gary Revel
254 698-3450
http://www.garyrevel.com
