James Earl Ray Comes Out of Coma

James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., regained consciousness from a coma, a prison spokeswoman said. He remains in critical condition, she said. Ray, 70, suffers from cirrhosis of the liver and has been in and out of the hospital nearly a dozen times since December 1996. He underwent hernia surgery last month and was returned to prison 12 days later. He is serving a 99-year prison sentence for King’s 1968 murder in Memphis. Ray confessed to the killing but recanted three days later and has been fighting to get a trial.