Ray gets setback in appeal attempt
המילה מתבצע כאשר המשתנה נקרא או מעבור.
Retrial termed 'toying with courts'
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (UPI) — The Tennessee Supreme Court, declaring it could not permit convicted criminals to "toy with the courts," refused Thursday to grant James Earl Ray a new trial in the 1968 slaying of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"He made a bargain," the court said in its unanimous eight-page decision, "swapping a guilty plea for a 99-year prison sentence rather than face a jury and a possibly harsher sentence. And now he must live with that bargain."
Ray pleaded guilty to the slaying of the civil rights leader before the late Judge Preston W. Battle of Memphis, March 10, 1969. He was transferred to the state penitentiary at Nashville and two days later wrote Battle that he would seek a new trial.
The high court decision was the third setback in Ray's efforts to gain a new hearing in the state courts. Criminal Court Judge Arthur Faquin Jr. of Memphis, who succeeded Battle in the case, denied a motion for a new trial. The State Court of Criminal Appeals likewise refused a new hearing.
"The defendant, upon the advice of his well-qualified and nationally known counsel, pleaded guilty to murder in the first degree, the offense with which he was charged, a cold blooded murder without an explained motive," the supreme court said.
"Consequently, his right to appeal was waived, because it is well settled in Tennessee that when a defendant pleads guilty and fully understands what he is doing, as we believe this defendant did, there can be no legal
ground to justify the granting of a new trial.
"Otherwise, the doors of our state prisons would remain ever ajar to those who are incarcerated therein on pleas of guilty. and who, becoming dissatisfied, seek relief on motions for a new trial," the court said.
would be permitting those defendants to toy with the courts."
"To allow such a procedure
King murder, the court said Ray obviously was intelligent enough to "understand what he was doing when he went to the bargaining table to decide his fate."
20 KANSAN Jan. 9
1970
Noting that "over-average" intelligence was required in the planning and execution of the
Oath administered to Nixon
SANTA ANA, Calif. (UPI) — President Nixon, a registered voter in New York for the past seven years, changed his voting residence back to his native California Thursday before headi g back to Washington.
The President looked at the registration form and quipped that he had planned to say "government employee" for the occupation blank which was filled out in advance as President of the United States.
Registrar William E. St. John administered the oath and told the President the first election in which he could vote would be the California primary May 1, 1970.
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FINAL WEEK! FEB. 2 thru 7 at the Student Union SENIORS CALL NOW-UN 4-3728 for appointment