James Earl Ray Gravely Ill

NASHVILLE, Tennessee: The man convicted of slaying civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. has been hospitalized in critical condition for liver failure and may be near death. James Earl Ray, who has been sick for more than a year, was moved from a prison hospital to Columbia Nashville Memorial Hospital on Saturday night, according to prison officials. Ray, 68, confessed to the April 1968 shooting of King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Three days later, Ray recanted his story and has been fighting for a new court hearing ever since.