Case Study Template : James Earl Ray

Dr. King was killed by one shot fired from in front of him. The prosecution alleged that from the bathroom window at the rear of a room at 422 1/2 South Main Street, Memphis, Tenn. James Earl Ray purchased murder weapon used in Dr. King's shooting and transported it from Birmingham, Ala., to Memphis, Tenn. Upon his arrival in Memphis, James Earl Ray rented a room at 422 1/2 South Main Street. Ray then waited until the optimal moment

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray was originally the prime suspect and was brought in for a trial two months after the death. Based on the advice of his attorney, to avoid a possible death penalty Ray admitted to the murder of MLK. 3 days later he recanted his plea and said he didn't commit the murder.

Compare and contrast the infamous events and trials relating to Leo Frank (in 1913), the Scottsboro Nine (in 1931), and Emmett Till (in 1955).

Martin Luther King Jr. was not only a huge civil rights activist, but a person to look up to in such dire times. He gave people hope and spoke of the equality for all. Due to his popularity and worldwide recognition, his death was of course a huge topic to be discussed. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther Jr. was shot outside his hotel room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was rushed to the hospital and later pronounced dead at 7:05 that evening. The announcement of his death immediately caused an uproar and later even violence to occur. Martin Luther King Jr’s death was no ordinary death, upon investigating the case, questions were being brought up. This lead to conspiracy theories to be made about the case of his murder.

When it comes to the assassination of the nobel peace prize winner and powerful civil rights leader, Martin luther king jr most people believe the case was closed after the police charged the man who supposedly committed the crime. With the supposed felon james earl ray put behind bars after pleading guilty to the murder the people were content, although most did not believe he worked alone. I am amongst the group of people who are curious if there is more to the murder, such as if the governmant was behind it.

Catastrophically, the assassination of Doctor Martin Luther King was devastating. The prosecution built their theory that James Earl Ray was a racist. Luckily, James Earl Ray pled guilty to the murder, so there would be no trial. On April 4, 1968, Doctor King was fatally wounded by a single shot in Memphis, Tennessee while standing on the balcony of his second-story hotel. Subsequently, that evening a Remington .30-06 hunting rifle was found one block away from the Lorraine Motel. Over the next several weeks the prosecution was building their case, which consisted of the rifle, eyewitness reports, and fingerprints on the rifle all pointed to a single assailant, James Earl Ray. Furthermore, James Earl Ray was an escaped convict that was on the

With the fame he was getting from the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King began to pick up a lot of new civil rights campaigners. With this, he also had lots of enemies, one of them being a guy by the name of James Earl Ray. James Earl grew up in Alton, Illinois and was always considered to be a racist. Ray was convicted on his 41st birthday after entering a guilty plea to forgo a jury trial. Had he been found guilty by jury trial, he would have been eligible for the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison (James,

When Detective Mike Baskin arrived at the scene, he too gave no thought to fingerprints or any other physical evidence. His first priority was to find the girl and to find the light-colored pickup truck. Those who were present at the scene told him about the happenings, he did not by himself investigate. Furthermore, he did not investigate Haraway’s car, which was parked at the crime scene. They did acknowledge that it was her car (manager pointed this out), but no one thought of looking for any physical evidence. Also, even Detective Baskin did not bother to check what the manager threw away. All the information, – such as how much money was stolen, her purse and her car, everything was told to Detective Baskin, he did not bother to check by himself. In the end, all the law enforcement officers left the crime scene without securing it and allowed the manager to lock up the store.

On the night of June 13th 1963, President John F. Kennedy was giving his speech on Civil Rights. Among the many people in America viewing this on Television, Myrlie Evers and her three children were watching. Suddenly, it was disturbed by the sound of a loud gunshot. Quickly running to their driveway, Myrlie and the kids found Medgar Evers shot in the back and lying in a pool of blood gasping for his breath. Myrlie held on to her husband's body as she and the children cried out for their fathers life. Almost thirty years later, the man charged with this murder was tried again in a court of law, in front of a different jury of eight blacks and four whites. Justice was going to be served in the state of Mississippi no matter how long it was going

Donald Smith had been arrested for a crime but then he said his twin brother did it. They accused Donald of carjacking and murdering a school teacher. After looking at the surveillance video they determined it was him. Later he said his twin brother committed the crime. After looking at the fingerprints left at the scene they determined it was actually ronald smith who was the actual murder

I searched mass murders, serial killers, and violent criminals who have been exposed to domestic violence in his or hers’ lifetime. However, I decided to choose a person who was simply a jealous ex boyfriend that decided to take the lives of eight innocent people. Many cases have made headlines within the year about mass shootings, but this particular case did not make headlines. It happened in Houston, Texas on August 8th, 2015. David Conley was once with Valerie Jackson after their relationship ended in the result of Conley smashing Jackson’s head into a refrigerator. Jackson then returned to her ex husband and restored their relationship for the sake of their six children together. Conley did not like the idea that Jackson returned to her ex husband, so Conley took matters in his own hands and broke into the Jackson’s residence opened fire on Jackson, her husband, and then their six children. (Jeltsen, 2015)

This would be the last march he participated in. After the march over he went back to Lorraine motel to relax for the day. He was on the second story of his balcony when he was shot in the head. He was rushed to St Joseph’s hospital were he was later pronounced dead. After this great hero was assassinated many riots started to take place in many black neighborhood. On April 8, Coretta King and huge crowd of 40,000 people walked in a silent march through the street of Memphis to honor the death of a great hero. After a two month manhunt for the killer they finally tracked him down. The killer turned out to be James Earl Ray. He pleaded guilty and was sentence to 99 year in jail.

If I was prosecuting James Earl Ray, I do feel that the state’s case would have been strong enough to win at trial. I would feel confident in this case because the evidence that we had was factual and not circumstantial evidence. Ray had many factors and evidence pointing to him that confirmed he was the one who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. Ray who was a criminal and an escaped convict who was on the run from the Missouri State Penitentiary when he assassinated King. I have proof that Ray recently purchased the rifle in Birmingham, Alabama that was used in King’s assassination. I have proof that Ray stalked King and followed him to Memphis in which he got a hotel room at the rooming-house across the street from where King was staying.

The book The Night Stalker is based on the life and crimes that Richard Ramirez has committed. Ramirez died at the age of 53 from an illness that had to do with lymphoma, while he was on death row. He was a serial killer who tortured, raped, and murdered several people in just over two years. Richard had more than 28 victims, but only 13 of them he has been convicted of actually murdering. His victims ranged from 9 to 83 years old, most of them were female, the only time he killed males was when they were in his way. The reason his main targets were either really young or elderly was because they are the weakest ones, and aren’t capable to fight back. Richard started to gain popularity because he had admitted to being a Satanist, which then

Martin Luther was a civil rights activist, a clergy and one of the key personalities behind the formation of the American Civil Rights Movement. The major goal of the movement was to advocate for the abolishment the racial discrimination of the African Americans population. King was shot on 4th April 1968 while he was his motel room at Memphis, Tennessee and was pronounced dead that evening while in hospital2. After the killing, James Earl Ray, who was convicted for murdering King, escaped but was arrested after two months in London. Many people believe that the government was involved in the assassination. Following the death of King, lots of riots and protests emerged in different cities across US.