|
KING FAMILY STATEMENT ON THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
"LIMITED INVESTIGATION" ON THE MLK ASSASSINATION
ATLANTA . . . On behalf of The family of Martin Luther King, Jr,
Martin Luther King III today issued the following statement on the U.S.
Justice Department's release of its report on their "limited
investigation" of recent evidence regarding the assassination of
Dr. King
"We learned only hours before the Justice Department press
conference that they were releasing the report of their results of their
"limited investigation," which covered only two areas of new
evidence concerning the assassination of Dr. King. We had requested that
we be given a copy of the report a few days in advance so that we might
have had the opportunity to review it in detail. Since that courtesy was
not extended to us, we are only able at this time to state the
following:
- We initially requested that a comprehensive investigation be
conducted by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, independent of
the government, because we do not believe that, in such a
politically-sensitive matter, the government is capable of
investigating itself.
- The type of independent investigation we sought was denied by the
federal government. But in our view, it was carried out, in a
Memphis courtroom, during a month-long trial by a jury of 12
American citizens who had no interest other than ascertaining the
truth. (Kings v. Jowers)
- After hearing and reviewing the extensive testimony and evidence,
which had never before been tested under oath in a court of law, it
took the Memphis jury only 1� hours to find that a conspiracy to
kill Dr. King did exist. Most significantly, this conspiracy
involved agents of the governments of the City of Memphis, the state
of Tennessee and the United States of America. The overwhelming
weight of the evidence also indicated that James Earl Ray was not
the triggerman and, in fact, was an unknowing patsy.
- We stand by that verdict and have no doubt that the truth about
this terrible event has finally been revealed.
- We urge all interested Americans to read the transcript of the
trial on the King Center website at http://www.thekingcenter.com,
and consider the evidence, so they can form their own unbiased
conclusions.
Although we cooperated fully with this limited investigation, we
never really expected that the government report would be any more
objective than that which has resulted from any previous official
investigation. In a reasonable period of time, when we have had an
opportunity to study the report, we will provide a detailed analysis of
it to the media and on the aforementioned website."
For more information, please contact Robert Vickers at (404) 526-8946
- ### - |
