James Earl Ray has never had a trial. Further, his lawyers have not been allowed to test the gun alleged to have been used to murder the Rev. Martin Luther King in Memphis on April 4, 1968.

On the eve of his scheduled 1969 trial, he was coerced to accept a guilty plea. It was negotiated without his knowledge over a two month period by his lawyers, the Shelby County (Tenn) district attorney general and the judge.

On Feb. 17, Ray had written to his brother Jerry that he expected to go to trial in the later part of April. Shortly afterward, his lawyer Percy Foreman agreed in writing to lend Jerry $ 500 if no "unseemly" conduct by James occurred.

Foreman told James that he was already convicted in the media, that his family would be continually harassed and finally, that he ( Foreman ) was in poor health and not able to conduct his best efforts.

James believed that he had little choice.

He entered a plea on March 10, 1969 intending to use the $500 to hire a new lawyer. Three days later, he began to seek a trial. The efforts continue to this day.

I was a colleague of King's during the last year of his life and like most of Americans in 1969, I believed that the right man was in prison.

Eight years later, following an initial interrogation of James Earl Ray at the request of King's friend Ralph Abernathy, I began to investigate the case.

The state alleged that the shot was fired from a bathroom window by James, acting alone, using a rifle dropped near the scene as he fled.

Gradually, over the next 10 years, I became convinced that the states case did not stand up and that James was an unknowing patsy.

In 1968, I became his attorney. I failed to obtain a trial, taking an appeal up to the U.S.Supreme Court. In 1963, I participated in a 10-day trial for television. An independent, hearing a fraction of the evidence we now have, found him not guilty.

Then massive new evidence emerged.

Space only allows for a brief summary. Witnesses are prepared to minimally testify about the following :

• The King assassination was the result of a New Orleans Mafia contract coordinated by it's now-deceased Memphis associate Frank Liberto, who enlisted the assistance of the manager of Jim's Grill in Memphis. The fatal shot was fired from the brush area behind this restaurant.
• Detailed instructions and the actual murder weapon ( for safekeeping ) were provided to the manager by a man named Raul, who also controlled the patsy, James Earl Ray.
• After the shooting, the manager carried the rifle into the grill. (Learning that we had witnesses to his involvement, he requested immunity in 1993, offering to tell all. He has never been interviewed by the authorities.)
• The existence and identity of Raul, which confirmed what James had always said. (The state has always denied Raul's very existence.)

The new evidence renders the state's case a complete shambles. Truth and justice compel that the new evidence be testified under oath at a trial. Since James is terminally, time is of the essence. Without a liver transplant, he could die at any time.

I am grateful for the courage of the King family as they join with the Ray family in demanding a new trial.

We are all victims of this tragedy and I urge everyone to join in this plea for a trial.

Truth and justice require nothing less.

Pepper, who practices law in England and the United States, is James Earl Ray's attorney and author of  "ORDER'S TO KILL: The Truth Behind the Murder of Martin Luther King."