No Mercy In Missouri

Even if James Earl Ray is freed from his 99-year sentence in Tennessee for the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., he still faces a prison term in Missouri, where he escaped from prison in 1967 - one year before King’s assassination. Ray, 69 and dying from liver disease, owes 10 years on a 20-year prison sentence for robbery in Missouri. Ray’s lawyers have asked Tennessee and Missouri for clemency, but Missouri officials said they are unwilling to consider the request. And Tennessee Gov. Don Sundquist has said he has no intention of granting Ray’s request for clemency even as Ray seeks a trial he hopes would clear him of the King assassination.