TIME Magazine content is available exclusively for TIME subscribers.

Current subscribers for full access. Not a TIME subscriber? .

Nation: Ray's New Ally

Jesse Jackson wants a retrial

Pressure has mounted for years from black leaders who want a new trial for James Earl Ray, the petty gunman and thief serving a 99-year prison sentence for the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. a decade ago. Last week, after meeting with Ray for four hours inside Tennessee's Brushy Mountain State Prison, Chicago Civil Rights Leader Jesse Jackson told reporters: "I do not believe he killed Dr. King. I believe Ray was coerced into pleading guilty to the murder."

When King was shot, Jackson was standing near him outside a second-floor room of the Lorraine Motel in...

Quotes of the Day »

RAY KELLY, New York City Police Commissioner, on the arrest of a New Jersey man in one of the nation's most baffling missing-children cases, the disappearance more than three decades ago of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
For use in rail of Articles page or Section Fronts pages. Duplicate and change name as necesssary to distinguish.