[continued from previous message]   
      
   Assassinations, have concluded that Mr. Ray probably fired the   
   fatal shot. Mr. Ray's original confession still stands in the   
   opinion of every judge who has heard him out.   
      
   A bank robber who had escaped from a Missouri prison at the time   
   of the shooting, Mr. Ray had rented a room in a boarding house   
   across the street from the motel. His fingerprints were found on   
   a rifle that was dropped outside the house. After the shooting,   
   he fled to Atlanta, Canada, Portugal and England before being   
   arrested. He pleaded guilty in 1969.   
      
   But after his sentencing, Mr. Ray said he had pleaded guilty   
   under pressure from his lawyers to avoid the death penalty. He   
   has said since then that he had been framed ''as a patsy'' by a   
   shadowy figure named Raoul. And Mr. Pepper, his lawyer for the   
   last 19 years, has suggested a number of conspiracies that he   
   outlined two years ago in a book.   
      
   Mr. Pepper has argued that modern tests would prove that Mr.   
   Ray's rifle did not fire the bullet that killed Dr. King, an   
   assertion questioned by some ballistics experts. Last month Mr.   
   Pepper asked a judge in Memphis to order the new tests,   
   believing that favorable results would force a new trial. The   
   judge has referred the question to an appellate court, which has   
   not ruled.   
      
   Without a ruling from the court and a liver transplant for Mr.   
   Ray, Mr. Pepper said today, ''We're going to be stalled out of   
   existence.''   
      
   At a news conference after the meeting today, Mr. King declined   
   to say what evidence had convinced him of Mr. Ray's innocence.   
   He also denied that his interaction with Mr. Ray was designed to   
   generate interest in a movie deal that Mr. King and the agent   
   for Dr. King's estate, Phillip Jones, have been negotiating with   
   Oliver Stone, the film maker.   
      
   ''I'm not Oliver Stone,'' he said. ''I'm not a conspiracy   
   theorist.''   
      
   But Mr. King made it clear that he had been influenced by Mr.   
   Pepper's theories, and he briefly mentioned the story of Lloyd   
   Jowers. Mr. Jowers, a former Memphis tavern owner, said on   
   national television in 1993 that he had a hired a man -- not Mr.   
   Ray -- to kill Dr. King at the request of a grocer with reputed   
   mob connections. His story has never been proved.   
      
   Asked who killed his father, Mr. King said, ''I don't know.   
   Again that's why a trial, I think, is so necessary. I do think   
   that attorney Pepper has some very compelling evidence that will   
   lead in that direction. You know, I can't prove this. I'm a very   
   instinctual person. My instincts tend to tell me when things are   
   not right. I can't always put my finger on it but I can say   
   this, that I have felt this sense of suppression, that there are   
   those forces out there that don't want what has been in darkness   
   to come to light.''   
      
   http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/28/us/dr-king-s-son-says-family-   
   believes-ray-is-innocent.html   
                 
      
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)