Martin Luther King death inquiry to be reopened

AMERICA IS to take another step into the darkest days of its past, reopening the investigation into the death of civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

Despite appeals from the King family, the new inquiry will be a limited investigation run by the Department of Justice, to examine two specific allegations. They are that James Earl Ray, the man convicted of the killing, did not do it and another that a businessman with links to organised crime was involved in the assassination.

"We hope this review will provide answers to new questions that have been raised about a tragedy that still haunts our nation," said Janet Reno, the US Attorney General.

King was shot on the balcony of a Memphis motel on 14 April 1968. Ray was arrested and initially confessed. Ray took two polygraph tests and, each time, examiners concluded that he had killed King and had acted alone.

But he later retracted his confession, arguing he had acted under instructions from a shadowy figure called Raoul. Ray died in April, of liver disease, serving a 99-year term.

Lloyd Jowers, a former Memphis restaurateur, claimed in 1993 that he directed King's death on the orders of a Memphis businessman with links to organised crime, and that Ray had not been the assassin.

Both claims will be investigated, despite previous investigations by the FBI and a Congressional Committee, which found no evidence.

King's widow, Coretta Scott King, said she did not believe Ray acted alone. Since then the Kings have gone further, saying they believe he did not do it.

Earlier this year Ms Reno met the King family to discuss the terms and conditions of any new probe. It will be led by Barry Kowalski, of the Justice Department's civil rights division, who headed the investigation into the 1991 beating of Rodney King by police in Los Angeles.

There are questions as to whether the Justice Department could prosecute anyone revealed as a suspect by the new investigation, because of the statute of limitations.