Ray’s Trial May Be Postponed

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31835, 13 November 1968, Page 17

Ray’s Trial May Be Postponed

fN.Z.P. A.-Reuter —Copyright) MEMPHIS (Tennessee), Nov. 12. A complex security screen surrounds the criminal courts building in the heart of Memphis today where James Earl Ray stands trial for the murder of Dr Martin Luther King.

Today’s hearing in the wood-panelled courtroom, almost nine months after the Negro civil rights leader snot down on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, is expected to be postponed almost immediately after a formal opening. An eleventh-hour decision by Rav to dismiss his two counsel. Mr Arthur Hanes, of Birmingham, Alabama, and his son. appeared virtually certain to lead to a delay. 1

His new lawyer is Mr Percy Foreman, of Houston, one of the most renowed and flamboyant criminal defence lawyers in the United States. Mr Percy Foreman said he had agreed to defend Ray because the case was interesting—not for money. Mr Foreman denied he had been hired by the Ku Klux Klan or any other Right-wing group.

The announcement that Ray had engaged Mr Foreman, from Houston, raised immediate speculation about the source and size of Ray’s financial backing. Asked if the Ku Klux Klan or any similar organisation was connected with financial arrangements for Ray’s defence, Mr Foreman replied: "Absolutely not That’s one thing I ean say.”

He said the Klan had asked him to enter the case a number of times, hut he had refused. His agreement was strictly with the accused and his family.