A Shelby County Circuit Court Jury in Memphis, Tenn., decided yesterday that civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was the victim of an assassination conspiracy.
After only three hours of deliberations, the jury came back with their decision in favor of King’s family, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit last year against former Memphis cafe owner Loyd Jowers. Jowers claimed in 1993 that he was part of a conspiracy to kill King at Memphis’ Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968.
Calling the case “cut-and-dried,” juror David Morphy said the panel was convinced that the assassination was too complex for James Earl Ray to have planned and carried out by himself. Morphy said the evidence “brought forth that there were a lot of people involved.”
