Noble and not-so-noble motives in King wrongful death suit

Relatives of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Dr. William Pepper, the late James Earl Ray's longtime lawyer, have joined forces in a wrongful death suit against a man who claims he was involved in a conspiracy to kill the civil rights leader in 1968. (AP Photo)

Analysis by Harriet Ryan
Court TV

				KING ASSASSINATION CONSPIRACY TRIAL
				Background Who killed Martin Luther King, Jr.? Discuss on our message board Coretta Scott King testifies 11/16/99: Special Report on the Case 11/23/99: Judge Joe Brown testifies Nov. 29 Update Nov. 29 Update (Afternoon) Nov. 30 Update (Morning) Nov. 30 Update (Evening) Dec. 1 Update (Morning) Dec. 1 Update (Evening): Dexter King testifies Dec. 2 Update Dec. 8 (The Verdict) Text of the Complaint

There's a plaintiff, a defendant, a judge, and a jury, but King v. Jowers, a civil case now unfolding in Memphis, is a trial in name only.

The surviving family members of Martin Luther King Jr., still searching for the truth about his 1968 assassination, are pressing a wrongful death suit to recover not money, the usual fare in any civil trial, but information. The verdict is moot to them. The family is already convinced King's murder was a government conspiracy, and they hope the courtroom setting and the power of the witness chair will flush out evidence and prove them right.

"It's not about the money. That's not the issue," Coretta Scott King testified Tuesday. "We're concerned about the truth and the truth coming out in a court of law so it can be documented for all, and we're hoping this would be one way of getting to the truth."

But the Kings are not the only stakeholders in this case, and others may have less noble motives in drawing attention to a 31-year-old crime. The plaintiff's attorney is promoting a book on the assassination while the defendant may try to sell the movie rights to his life story, and it wouldn't hurt their pocketbooks to have a high-profile re-airing of a case that many consider closed.

Time after time federal, state and local authorities have discounted government conspiracies. A federal investigation designed to tie up loose ends began in August 1998, and continues to crawls along in Washington, but the accepted version of events is that prison escapee James Earl Ray killed King. The family has rejected these findings. Mrs. King said the family's beliefs about the murder have cost them prestige and funding for their altruistic projects.

"There were a number of media articles that were negative to the family as a result ... and we feel it affected some of the support we received at the King Center (for Nonviolent Social Change)," said Mrs. King.

Important as the testimony is for the King family, the outcome of the trial has even greater significance for their attorney, Dr. William Pepper. Pepper represented Ray, and it was Pepper, who arranged a meeting between Ray and King’s son, Dexter, in Ray's final years.

Pepper convinced the family that his client was the fall-guy for an enormous government conspiracy to murder King, and in recent years, the King family has parroted Pepper's account. They filed the wrongful death suit at his urging, and he is now representing them without charge.

"We're concerned about the truth and the truth coming out in a court of law so it can be documented for all and we're hoping this would be one way of getting to the truth," testified Coretta Scott King Tuesday. (AP Photo)

The King family’s motives may be beyond reproach; the same cannot be said for Pepper. While Pepper is not collecting a retainer, he stands to gain in other ways, including from sales of his book, a controversial and possibly libelous written version of his theory about King's death. Two New York book publishers retracted parts of the book, "Orders to Kill," this summer and paid cash settlements to an Alabama man who sued them for libel. Pepper has yet to face libel charges from the Alabama man, but the arguments the attorney is presenting to the Memphis jury echo those of the book.

Those arguments concern Loyd Jowers, a fragile-looking 73-year-old who in 1968 owned Jim's Grill, a cafe overlooking the motel where King was shot. Pepper and the Kings want Jowers to flesh out a 1993 television interview when he takes the stand. In that interview, Jowers claimed he had been offered $100,000 by mobsters to arrange the death of King, and in fact, planned the crime and hired an assassin other than Ray. He named a local produce dealer and a police officer as co-conspirators, and added that he did not realize that King was the intended target until after the shooting.

Since 1993, Jowers has refused to discuss his claim, indicating that he was fearful of being indicted, but his attorney said Jowers admits to being involved. The attorney Tuesday told the jury his client agreed with "about 80 percent of what Dr. Pepper has to say." His opening statement promised a conspiracy-laden defense.

"Mr. Jowers was a small cog in a very, very big wheel," attorney Lewis Garrison told the jury.

Whatever theories Garrison and Pepper get into the record during this trial, it's not likely they will change the general belief that Ray was responsible. Seven state and federal courts refused him a new trial, and the House Select Committee on Assassins likewise concluded Ray pulled the trigger. Jowers’ claims were refuted by the Memphis D.A., who intimated that Jowers had tried to bribe people to support his claims. He also failed a lie-detector test, and journalist Gerald Posner, whose book "Killing the Dream" examined the conspiracy theories surrounding King's death, has said Jowers dreamed up the story to sell to a Hollywood studio for $300,000.

But there is little chance of these proceedings accomplishing the goals articulated by Mrs. King Tuesday. "If we know the truth, we can be free to go on with our lives," she testified.

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