Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter has died at the age of 76. The boxer, who was catapulted to the public eye for his wrongful murder conviction, passed away in his Toronto, Canada home today.
Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter was the boxer, who became an international symbol of racial injustice following the court trials he faced for allegedly murdering three people in 1966.
John Artis, Carter's friend and former co-defendant, confirmed that the passing of the former middleweight boxer.
In 1966, Rubin Carter was convicted for three murders at a taverns in Paterson, New Jersey. For this, he spent 19 years in prison.
Additionally, the famous 'Hurricane' boxer was convicted again in 1967 alongside Artis and yet again in a new trial in 1976.
After several years of appeals and public advocacy, Rubin Carter was freed in November 1985 after his convictions were set aside.
It can be noted that Carter's ordeal inspired many artists to fight racial injustice. His travails were publicized in Bob Dylan's 1975 song 'Hurricane,' in several books, and even in 1999 Denzel Washington-starring film.
"I wouldn't give up. Just because a jury of 12 misinformed people ... found me guilty did not make me guilty. And because I was not guilty, I refused to act like a guilty person," the former middleweight boxer said in an interview back in 2011.
Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter was born on May 6, 1937 to a family of seven kids. Documents reveal that he suffered from a hereditary speech impediment as a child; thus, he was forced to learn how to defend himself while still young.
Carter was sent to a juvenile reform centre at the young age of 12 for allegedly assaulting a man, but according to him, the man was apparently a paedophile.
In 1954, Carter joined the Army, where he experienced racial segregation. Fortunately, it also paved the way to his boxing career when he began to engage himself into the sport while he was based in West Germany.
Rubin Carter established a name for himself as he boxed regularly at Madison Square Garden and in other parts of the world including London, Paris and Johannesburg.
Although he was never a world champion, the 'Hurricane' in the boxing ring went 27-12-1 with 19 knockouts, and he is best remembered for remarkably stopping two-division champ Emile Griffith in the first round of a 1963 game.
Reuters reports that Carter's boxing career was already going downhill when he was arrested and charged in a June triple murder. He was convicted for the fatal shootings alongside Artis - a hitch-hiker he had picked up on the night of the murders.
During the trial in 1974, two key witnesses recanted their testimony, which then sparked a series of stories by the New York Times, making him a cause celebre for the civil rights movement.
He was released in 1985 after a federal judge ruled that his convictions "were predicted on an appeal to racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure." A third trial was not pursued afterwards.
Nevertheless, despite his freedom from prison, some continued to raise their doubts about Rubin's innocence, claiming that the boxer was still guilty of the murders.
Meanwhile, Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter - for the next 12 years after his release - focused as the executive director of the Toronto-based Association of the Wrongly Accused.
"We have freed more than 20 people in the last 15 or 20 years" AIDWYC Senior Counsel and Founding Director James Lockyer said, adding that "he (Carter) played a huge role in that."
Since 2005, Carter's weight and activity dwindled, but he continued to advocate for prisoners he believed were wrongfully convicted by the law.
Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter is survived by two children from his first marriage to Mae Thelma, according to Reuters.
