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Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a contender for middleweight boxing title of the world, was convicted of a triple homicide.  His acquaintance, John Artis, was also convicted.  In 1974, while in jail, Carter published a book entitled The Sixteenth Round, From No. 1 Contender to #45472.  The book was discovered by Bob Dylan, who made Carter a folk hero with the release of the song "Hurricane" and led to a public outcry that was largely responsible for his retrial in 1976.  Carter was also supported by Coretta Scott King, Muhammad Ali, Joan Baez, and Bobby Seale as well as by some journalists and lawyers.

In a climate of racial tension, Carter was alleged to have killed white people to avenge the death of a black man who had been killed by a white man that same night in Paterson, NJ.  The triple homicide occurred at Bob's Lafayette Grill at 18th and Lafayette Sts.  Against evidence, Carter was reconvicted in 1976, in part because a first trial witness, who recanted his testimony, recanted his recantation and testified again.  Later Carter's conviction was overturned because Judge H. Lee Sarokin declared that both of Carter's two previous convictions had been based on "racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure."  Carter was freed in 1985, but it took another three years for charges to be completely dismissed.  His co-defendant, John Artis, was paroled in 1981.  Carter later headed a Toronto-based lobbying group, AIDWYC, the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted.  (JD01) (Carter v. Rafferty)  [6/05]

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