Tests Asked on Gun Said to Kill King

A state appeals court allowed new tests on the rifle and bullet believed used to kill Dr, Martin Luther King Jr., keeping alive James Earl Ray’s quest for a trial. The State Court of Criminal Appeals said a judge may order new tests on the bullet and the hunting rifle found with Ray’s fingerprints on it near where King was slain in 1968. Ray, who is 69 and suffering from liver disease, is hoping to reverse his guilty plea in the assassination. He contends the rifle is not the murder weapon. Memphis Judge Joe Brown ruled in February that new technology exists to prove once and for all if Ray’s rifle killed King.