The gun believed to have killed Martin Luther King Jr. was fired for the first time in nearly 20 years as part of James Earl Ray's latest effort to prove his innocence.
Weapons experts donned raincoats and safety goggles to shoot the gun six times Wednesday into a 900-gallon water tank, then fished out the bullets for testing.Ray, who pleaded guilty to assassinating King but then recanted, hopes tests on his rifle will show the bullet that killed the civil rights leader in 1968 came from another weapon. Such a conclusion could pave the way for the trial he has wanted for decades.
Results may not be available until next month.