MEMPHIS�The 1968 assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a conspiracy, a jury ruled here Dec. 8, bringing closure to an issue that has pierced the heart of the King family for years and has been the focus of controversy for the nation.

The historic verdict, handed down by a jury consisting of six Blacks and six whites, was the result of a wrongful death lawsuit by the King family against Loyd Jowers, 73, a former local cafe owner who claimed he knew of a plot behind the murder. The Shelby County Circuit Court trial marked the first time a jury has heard evidence in a full-blown trial. A mock HBO television trial in 1993 found confessed killer James Earl Ray innocent.

Although he appeared during early parts of the trial, Mr. Jowers never testified and did not appear for the verdict because of illness. However, jurors granted the King family its requested cash award of a mere $100 after finding that Mr. Jowers and "unknown conspirators�� within the government were liable for Dr. King�s April 4, 1968 assassination in Memphis.

Prosecutors, who succeeded in preventing Mr. Ray from ever obtaining a trial and in keeping him in prison until his death last year, called the civil trial a one-sided affair. It featured witnesses passing on second and third-hand hearsay with little cross-examination from Mr. Jowers� lawyer, Lewis Garrison, they said.

Coretta Scott King, the widow of the slain civil rights leader, appeared as the first witness and acknowledged that her family was widely criticized in 1997 when they endorsed Mr. Ray�s claim of innocence and embraced conspiracy theorist William Pepper�s claim that elements of the Mafia, the Memphis Police Department, the U.S. Army�possibly even President Lyndon Johnson�had conspired to kill her husband.

In Atlanta at a news conference the day after the trial she said the King family�s intent was not an effort to make money, nor to seek revenge, but to pursue the truth about her husband�s assassination.

"This verdict is not only a great victory for my family, but also a great victory for America and a great victory for truth itself," Mrs. King told reporters.

Author Gerald Posner, who detailed in a book last year his findings about Mr. Jowers and the prospect of a conspiracy, believes Mr. Ray had no assistance in killing Dr. King. Mr. Posner said the verdict does a disservice to history and Dr. King�s legacy.

"The jury�s verdict in Memphis to me has all the earmarks of a sham," Mr. Posner said. "The jury had only one side presented to it�the side that said there is an elaborate conspiracy that killed Martin Luther King."

Mrs. King testified that she believes Mr. Ray might have had some involvement in her husband�s murder, but "was not the person we felt that really, actually killed him.�� Mr. Ray pleaded guilty in a three-hour trial in 1969, but recanted three days later.

With national media showing little interest, Rev. Andrew Young testified that he believed Mr. Jowers� story. The former aide to Dr. King and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, mayor of Atlanta and member of Congress, testified that he met with Mr. Jowers for four hours in Nashville about a year ago and found his account credible. Rev. Young described Mr. Jowers as a sick man who "wanted to go to confession to get his soul right."

Later in the trial, former Congressman Walter E. Fauntroy testified that more details would be known about Dr. King�s assassination if the government had followed up on certain leads. Mr. Fauntroy, who pastors a church in the nation�s capital, once headed a congressional committee�the House Select Committee on Assassinations 1977-78�that re-examined Dr. King�s murder. Mr. Fauntroy said his committee concluded there might have been a lower-level conspiracy, but that he was never satisfied with its conclusion. The committee dropped its investigation when funding dried up. "Had we had (another) six months, we may well have gotten to the bottom of everything,�� Rev. Fauntroy told the jury

Testifying as an expert prosecution witness, popular television Judge Joe Brown, who also serves as a Shelby County Criminal Court judge, gave testimony suggesting Mr. Ray was falsely convicted as the killer of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Judge Brown told jurors he believes the rifle used to implicate Mr. Ray was not the weapon actually used to kill Dr. King. He also said that 12 of 18 bullets test-fired from the evidence rifle in 1997 did not match the bullet retrieved from Dr. King�s body.

"It is my opinion that this is not the murder weapon,�� Judge Brown said as he handled the .30-06 Remington GameMaster hunting rifle from the witness stand. "This weapon literally could not have hit the broad side of a barn.��

Dr. King�s son Dexter, who once met and shook hands with Mr. Ray, testified that he had also met twice with Mr. Jowers and that at each meeting Mr. Jowers told his conspiracy story involving himself, producer Frank Liberto and police officer Earl Clark. Messrs. Clark and Liberto are dead, but Mr. Clark�s wife at the time of the murder, Rebecca Clark, told jurors that her husband was taking a nap at their home after several days on duty when she heard a broadcast on his police radio that Dr. King had been shot.

An interview with ABC-TV reporter Sam Donaldson in 1993 first brought national attention to Mr. Jowers when he claimed his involvement in an assassination plot. However, a 1998 investigation by the Shelby County District Attorney General�s Office found that his story likely was motivated by the hope of making money through a book or movie deal.

Mr. Donaldson was told that Mr. Jowers received $100,000 from Mr. Liberto to arrange Dr. King�s murder. Mr. Jowers also said last year that a third person, a man identified by Mr. Pepper as Officer Clark, actually shot Dr. King from behind his cafe, then tossed the still smoking gun to Mr. Jowers.

Mr. Jowers� cafe was located about a block from the Lorraine Motel, directly below the second-story rooming house from which prosecutors believe Mr. Ray shot Dr. King as he stood on the balcony. Mr. Jowers told investigators that on the day of the murder he was working inside his cafe, but knew nothing more.

Atty. Garrison did little cross-examination of witnesses, saying he agreed with "80 percent�� of the Kings� case. Other witnesses included Mr. Ray�s brother Jerry; Rev. James Lawson, who had invited Dr. King to come to Memphis during the Memphis sanitation workers� strike; Rev. Samuel B. Kyles, a local pastor who was present at the time of the shooting; and Dr. King�s oldest daughter, Yolanda, who gave emotional testimony about how she felt about losing her father at age 12.

After a personal request by Mrs. King last year, U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno opened a separate inquiry, which remains open at this time. But after 18 months, the U.S. Justice Department reports that its investigation is nearly complete.