brown was thrust into the national spotlight while presiding over james earl ray's last appeal of ray's conviction for the assassination of martin luther king, jr. brown was removed from the reopened investigation of king's murder due to alleged bias—former congresswoman cynthia mckinney of georgia wrote that brown told her and the congressional black caucus, unequivocally, that the so-called murder rifle was not the weapon that killed martin luther king, jr. it was during this time that judge brown caught the attention of the producers of "judge judy."