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New tests on King rifle to begin Wednesday
May 10, 1997
Web posted at: 11:11 a.m. EDT (1511 GMT)
MEMPHIS, Tennessee (CNN) -- New tests on the rifle believed to have been used in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. are to begin Wednesday to determine once and for all if it is indeed the murder weapon.
Tennessee Criminal Court Judge Joe Brown said Friday that ballistics experts -- selected by convicted assassin James Earl Ray's defense lawyers -- will fire the hunting rifle for three days starting Wednesday at the Rhode Island state crime lab in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.
Test bullets and the death slug then will be compared at a private lab, CamScan USA Inc. in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, on May 21-23.
Ray, 69, is serving a 99-year sentence for the murder and is dying from serious liver disease. Ray pleaded guilty in 1969, only to recant his confession later. He now contends the plea was coerced, and the rifle with his fingerprints on it planted near the crime scene.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Lawyer seeks liver transplant for James Earl Ray - April 13, 1997
- Ray tells M.L. King's son he didn't kill his father - March 27, 1997
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