After being arrested for King’s 1968 murder, Ray was advised by his attorney, Percy Foreman, to plead guilty in a pre-trial hearing.

Ray followed Foreman’s advice but three days later, Ray recanted the plea and fired Foreman. He then asked his judge for a trial but the judge refused, sentencing Ray to 99 years in prison.

The HBO special was the closest Ray ever got to defending himself in court. The mock jury found Ray not guilty of King’s murder.

This verdict, along with further revelations later that year by a Memphis restaurant owner, Loyd Jowers, helped vindicate Ray in the eyes of King’s family.

Jowers appeared on ABC’s Primetime Live show and revealed a high-level conspiracy behind King’s assassination which used Ray as the scapegoat. Five years later, the King family pursued a wrongful death lawsuit against Jowers and the other unknown co-conspirators.

“I brought a civil action on behalf of the King family against Loyd Jowers and others who were involved in the assassination of Martin King,” Pepper said.

According to Pepper, this civil trial in Memphis lasted 30 days and involved over 70 witnesses. Pepper laid out all of the available evidence to show not only how King was killed, but also why he was killed.

Pepper argued before the jury that, true to Jowers’ earlier revelations, a wide range of individuals, including government officials, conspired against King, resulting in King’s death from a single shot by a sniper in the bushes outside Jowers’ restaurant.

“There was a military team there, an Alpha 184 team there, and they were backups. They did not kill Martin King,” Pepper said. “Martin was killed by a lone, contract gunman who got off that shot.”

“Now if he had not been successful, the military unit was there to make sure that Martin was killed.”

During the interview, Pepper explained that King died right before his planned march to lead a half-million people to Washington, D.C. in order to pressure congressmen on legislation.