The Loyd Jowers trial, known as King family v. Jowers and other unknown co-conspirators, was an American wrongful death lawsuit brought to trial by the family of Martin Luther King Jr. against Loyd Jowers. The family filed the lawsuit after Jowers admitted in an interview on PrimeTime Live that he had been part of a conspiracy to assassinate the civil rights leader in 1968. The trial occurred in late 1999. The jury unanimously agreed that there was a conspiracy perpetrated by Jowers and other parties, including various government agencies, to murder King and frame James Earl Ray as a patsy.^[1][2]

In 1993, Loyd Jowers appeared on the ABC News program PrimeTime Live. He said he had been paid $100,000 by the alleged Memphis mobster Frank Liberto to help organize the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.^[3] Jowers owned a restaurant, Jim's Grill, very near the Lorraine Motel, where King often stayed while in Memphis and the assassination took place.^[4][5] Jowers claimed that besides Liberto, a man named "Raoul" and several Memphis Police Department officers were also involved in the assassination planning and execution. Jowers identified Memphis Police Lieutenant Earl Clark as the shooter.^[6]

For 25 years, Jowers had remained silent about King's assassination. But after consulting on an HBO documentary film in which Ray is allowed a mock trial and defended by attorney William Pepper,^[7] Jowers spoke to his own attorney, Lewis Garrison, about finally coming forward and giving his account of the conspiracy to assassinate King and frame Ray for the crime.^[8]

In November 1999, the trial began in the wrongful death lawsuit. William Pepper represented the King family. The three-and-one-half-week trial, referred to in U.S. government records as simply King v. Jowers, was conducted in Memphis in Shelby County Circuit Court with presiding Judge James E. Swearengen. Thousands of documents were presented; over 70 witnesses took the stand or were cited by deposition, audiotape, videotape, or by other witnesses.^[9][10] Jowers himself did not testify. The frail 73-year-old became ill after three days in court (note: he died the following May) and was excused by Judge Swearengen. Jowers stated through his attorney "that he would plead the Fifth Amendment if subpoenaed."^[10]

Some observers commented on what they perceived as a surprising lack of American media interest in the trial. Bárbara Reis was a correspondent for the Lisbon daily Público who attended several days of the proceedings. She was quoted as saying, "Everything in the U.S. is the trial of the century. O.J. Simpson's trial was the trial of the century. Clinton's trial was the trial of the century. But this is the trial of the century, and who's here?"^[10]

The jury required only one hour of deliberations to reach a unanimous verdict that King was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.^[11] They found Jowers responsible, and also found that "government agencies" were among the co-conspirators.^[12] The King family was granted the $100 they requested in damages, and they saw the verdict as vindication. King's son Dexter said, "This is the period at the end of the sentence. So please, after today, we don't want questions like, 'Do you believe James Earl Ray killed your father?' I've been hearing that all my life. No, I don't, and this is the end of it."^[3] Dexter further emphasized that "the shooter was the Memphis Police Department Officer, Lt. Earl Clark."^[12] King's youngest child Bernice later said, "It pains my heart that James Earl Ray had to spend his life in prison paying for things he didn't do."^[13]

James Douglass and a local Memphis TV reporter were the only journalists to cover every session of the proceedings.^[10] Douglass wrote that in his view, Jowers was never the King family's primary concern: "As soon became evident in court, the real defendants were the anonymous co-conspirators who stood in the shadows behind Jowers."^[10] To his point, Coretta Scott King said in a statement after the trial: "There is abundant evidence of a major, high-level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband." She added how the jury found that the Mafia and various government agencies "were deeply involved in the assassination. ... Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame."^[1][2]

The U.S. mainstream press did not treat the verdict as a significant development in Dr. King's assassination. In its summary of the trial, The New York Times reported that "a vast conspiracy [was] alleged but not proved."^[12] The Los Angeles Times cast doubt on the validity of the King family's case, and concluded its article with a 1997 quote from a homicide detective who labeled attorney William Pepper "the biggest liar that ever hit the ground. He'll say anything in the world for a little notoriety."^[14] The weekly magazine U.S. News & World Report characterized Pepper as "a man prone to bizarre conspiracy theories", and quoted King biographer Dave Garrow who called the verdict "almost meaningless".^[15]

The result in the Jowers trial prompted the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) to reopen the case. In June 2000, Attorney General Janet Reno announced that, after looking into Dr. King's assassination, no evidence of a conspiracy could be found.^[16] The DOJ said it identified numerous inconsistencies in Jowers' statements. It said the witnesses who supported Jowers during the trial were either not credible or contradictory. Moreover, it claimed there was no proof Frank Liberto was a member of the Mafia. The DOJ suggested that Jowers fabricated his story for financial reward.^[17]

Over a decade later, the DOJ's Civil Rights Division documented its disagreements with the trial's evidence, testimony, and verdict. It stated in its conclusion: "the trial's evidence fails to establish the existence of any conspiracy to kill Dr. King. The verdict presented by the parties and adopted by the jury is incompatible with the weight of all relevant information, much of which the jury never heard. Accordingly, the conspiracy allegations presented at the trial warrant no further investigation."^[18]

Gerald Posner, an investigative journalist who wrote the 1998 book Killing the Dream, in which he argues that James Earl Ray was the lone killer, said after the verdict: "It distresses me greatly that the legal system was used in such a callous and farcical manner in Memphis. If the King family wanted a rubber stamp of their own view of the facts, they got it."^[19] Robert Blakey—who led the 1970s House Select Committee on Assassinations that probed the murders of Dr. King and John F. Kennedy—also criticized the case presented by Pepper.^[20]

• Martin Luther King Jr. assassination conspiracy theories