Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Location	Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Date	April 4, 1968 6:01 p.m. (Central Time)
Target	Martin Luther King, Jr.
Attack type	Assassination by sniper shooting
Weapons	Remington 760 Gamemaster
Perpetrators	James Earl Ray according to a criminal case Loyd Jowers and "others, including unspecified governmental agencies" according to a later civil case

Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent American leader of the civil rights movement and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was shot and killed at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39. King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at 7:05 that evening. He was a prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement who was known for his use of nonviolence and civil disobedience.

James Earl Ray, a prisoner who ran away from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested and charged with King's murder. He was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary.^[1] He died in prison at the age of 70 due to liver failure.^[2]

The King family and others believe that a government conspiracy killed King, as Loyd Jowers said in 1993. They believe that Ray was a scapegoat. In 1999, the King family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Jowers for $10,000,000. During the trial, both the King family and Jowers gave evidence accusing the government of a conspiracy. The government agencies that were accused could not defend themselves or respond, because they were not named as defendants. Based on the evidence, the jury concluded that Jowers and "others were part of a conspiracy to kill King."^[3][4]

1. ↑ Pepper, William F. (2008). An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King. Verso. p. 8. ISBN 978-1-84467-285-1.
2. ↑ Pepper, William F. (2008). An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King. Verso. p. 97. ISBN 978-1-84467-285-1.
3. ↑ name=Douglass2000
4. ↑ YELLIN, EMILY. "Memphis Jury Sees Conspiracy in Martin Luther King's Killing"], The New York Times, 9 Dec. 1999. Web. 8 June 2013.<https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/09/us/memphis-jury-sees-conspiracy-in-martin-luther-king-s-killing.html>.