by Ramsey Clark
ince the death of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. in 1968, there have been sporadic congressional, public,
and private investigations and inquiries, and the creation of a massive
body of literature concerned with the truth behind the murder. Today, however,
skepticism and disbelief are greater than ever.
How our people face this tragic event, even after a generation, becomes a matter of fundamental importance to our national character. If we become indifferent, if we choose not to search or choose to conceal, if we forget, then that is what we are.
Dr. King's own generation, its successor, and the next several will not be satisfied that they know all they need to know to understand how violence irresistibly pursued and destroyed America's prophet of nonviolent action. We have a duty to ourselves and posterity to take every step consistent with our principles to identify every fact, to explore every opportunity, to know everything possible about his defining death.
We should lament the fact that there was no trial of James Earl Ray in 1969. It would have provided a greater measure of fact for evaluation, though criminal trials are a poor way to determine historical fact.
We must recognize, however, that a defendant has a right to plead guilty and a right not to be coerced to do so. There are necessarily restrictive standards and procedures by which a guilty plea can be set aside; otherwise, guilty pleas would be a means of manipulating justice. Only if there is evidence sufficient to justify setting aside a guilty plea after 28 years can we ask for a trial at this time, however desirable it may seem.
There are constitutional means available to address the urgent need to obtain the testimony of James Earl Ray; to test the rifle he purchased, which is alleged to be the murder weapon; to inquire about a man alleged to be the "Raoul" who Ray claims was a participant; to determine the identification, purpose, and conduct of Army personnel now conceded to have been near the Lorraine Motel on the day of the assassination; to inquire into the activity of Lloyd Jowers, who ran Jim's Grill just below the rooming house from which Dr. King may have been shot; and to probe other issues that have arisen in more recent years.
A new investigation by a congressional committee could immediately offer James Earl Ray the opportunity to say whatever he might choose to say now and to answer questions. It could also make the other inquiries and provide its findings to Ray.
Such an investigation, updating earlier ones, is clearly a proper exercise of legislative power. It has potentially important relevance to future legislation to control government intelligence agencies, investigative bureaus, and military conduct; prevent concealment and cover-up by government; and provide a fairer administration of justice.
The American people would be well served by the creation of a major independent commission charged with the duty of initiating and continuing investigations -- and assisting private investigators -- on matters of national importance involving allegations of government misconduct or of failure, or where doubts continue or new ones arise (the Kennedy assassinations, the secret bombing of Cambodia, the School of the Americas, Iran/Contra, among many).
These investigations could include a broad range of government acts, failures to act, and cover-ups, with which the American people have become so familiar in this century. We would never abandon our duty to learn the truth about what our government does and has done.
If, as Walt Whitman suggested, the death of Abraham Lincoln and "the absolute extirpation and erasure of slavery from the States" marked the 19th century, the death of Martin Luther King Jr. might be that special event to mark and mnemonize our even more turbulent 20th century.
If the great issue of this century has been the question of race, his answer was clear, persistent, and comprehensive. A person must be judged by the content of his character, not the color of his skin. If it was violence, Dr. King never blinked in the face of its threat -- proclaiming at New York's Riverside Church that the greatest purveyor of violence on Earth was our own government.
Ramsey Clark was U.S. attorney general at the time of Dr. King's assassination. A somewhat different version of this commentary will appear in the March 10th issue of The Nation.