KING ASSASSINATION CONSPIRACY TRIAL
				Background Who killed Martin Luther King, Jr.? Discuss on our message board Coretta Scott King testifies 11/16/99: Special Report on the Case 11/23/99: Judge Joe Brown testifies Nov. 29 Update Nov. 29 Update (Afternoon) Nov. 30 Update (Morning) Nov. 30 Update (Evening) Dec. 1 Update (Morning) Dec. 1 Update (Evening): Dexter King testifies Dec. 2 Update Dec. 8 (The Verdict) Text of the Complaint

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Court TV) — The former wife of a Memphis officer allegedly involved in a conspiracy to kill Martin Luther King, Jr. told jurors Thursday that her late husband was with her at home when they learned the civil rights leader had been killed.

King's family has suggested that Memphis Chief Inspector Earl Clark was one of the alleged "unknown" conspirators involved in the civil rights leader's 1968 killing. Clark's name has come up several times in the three-week-old trial stemming from the family's wrongful death suit against cafe owner Loyd Jowers.

In a 1993 interview with ABC, Jowers claimed that he participated in a conspiracy to kill Martin Luther King, Jr. and that someone other than Ray shot King. Ray initially admitted killing King but retracted his confession days later. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison and spent the next 29 years of his life trying to get a new trial.

Last Wednesday, Dexter King, Martin Luther King's son, told jurors about two conversations he had with Jowers in 1997 where the 73-year-old man admitted his role in the assassination and implicated Clark. On the day of the killing, King recalled Jowers saying, he gave the murder weapon to Clark. After Martin Luther King was killed, Jowers apparently told Dexter, Clark returned the gun to him. According to King, Jowers said he first tried — and failed — to get rid of the murder weapon by flushing it down a toilet. Eventually, King testified, Jowers said another man took the rifle and threw it into a river.

However, on Thursday, Rebecca Clark, Officer Clark's wife at the time of King's death, disputed the plaintiffs' claims. She told jurors that Earl was home sleeping when she heard King's shooting broadcast over his police radio.

Before Mrs. Clark's testimony Thursday, the plaintiffs seemed to suggest that a Memphis minister also was involved in King's death. The Rev. Samuel B. Kyles, pastor of Memphis' Monumental Baptist Church, has often told people that he spent approximately an hour with King and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy at the Lorraine Motel before the fatal shooting and was standing several feet away from King when the shot was fired.

But plaintiff's co-counsel Juliet Hill Akins confronted Kyles with a surveillance report that disputed his story. According to the report, Kyles did not enter King's room until 10 minutes before the killing. But Kyles said the report was wrong and denied suggestions that he told his account of King's shooting to gain notoriety for himself.

Plaintiff attorney Dr. William Pepper — who previously represented Ray — says a liability judgment against Jowers would validate theories that Ray was set up as part of an alleged conspiracy to kill King — allegations largely discounted by law enforcement officials.

Jowers' attorney claims his client did not know King was the target when he became involved in the murder plot. Jowers' defense, however, agrees that a conspiracy did exist. Jowers' attorney, Lewis Garrison, will continue presenting his case Monday.

— Bryan Robinson