Ray’s Judge Pulled From King Case

A judge whose rulings gave hope to James Earl Ray that he would get a trial in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. was removed from the case for appearing biased toward the convicted killer. During the past four years, Criminal Court Judge Joe Brown has ruled on various petitions filed by Ray in his decades-old attempt to take back his guilty plea to killing King in Memphis in 1968. Prosecutors contend Brown repeatedly has gone beyond the narrow legal questions raised in Ray’s petitions, and the state Court of Criminal Appeals agreed.