The Assassination of MLK On April 4, 1968, while standing on the second floor of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee , Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot by an ex-soldier and Germany veteran. James Earl Ray, the confessed sniper, had been imprisoned previously for other crimes, though no murders. He shot MLK at the hotel, was captured and confessed. Years later, in 1998, Ray died of hep C. His name was James Earl Ray. He was born on March 10, 1928 in Alton, Illinois, USA. James Earl Ray confessed to the assassination on March 10, 1969, though he recanted this confession three days later. On the advice of his attorney, Percy Foreman, Ray plead guilty to avoid a trial conviction and thus the possibility of receiving the death penalty. Ray was sentenced to a 99-year prison term. There h