James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998) was an American criminal convicted of the assassination of civil rights and anti-war activist Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ray was convicted on March 10, 1969, 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 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and tried unsuccessfully to gain a new trial. He died in prison of hepatitis C.
Read more about James Earl Ray: Early Life, Initial Convictions and First Escape From Prison, Activity in 1967, Activity in Early 1968, Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Second Escape From Prison, Conspiracy Allegations, Death
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“America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense ... human rights invented America.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“And she straiked me three times o’er her knee;
She changed me again to my ain proper shape,
And I nae mair maun toddle about the tree.”
—Unknown. Alison Gross. . .
Oxford Book of Ballads, The. James Kinsley, ed. (1969)
“Deserve a great deal, and you shall have a great deal; deserve little, and you shall have but a little; and be good for nothing at all, and I assure you, you shall have nothing at all.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“It has never been my object to record my dreams, just the determination to realize them.”
—Man Ray (1890–1976)