"Hurricane" Carter comes to Southern
by Jason Walsh
"Hurricane" Carter comes to Southern
by Jason Walsh
Former middleweight contender Rubin "Hurricane" Carter overcame a lifetime of tragedy to become a "champion of human rights."
The story of "Hurricane" Carter began in 1937 in Clifton, NJ. He began his professional boxing career in 1961, and by 1966, he was the number-one contender for the middleweight title. With an impressive 27-1-12 record with 20 knockouts, he was ready to challenge the current champion, Dick Tiger.
However, the events in a tavern in Paterson, NJ would forever change his life. On June 17, 1966, at the Lafayette Bar & Grill, three white patrons were murdered. The Paterson police began a citywide search for suspects. Many cars were stopped, searched, and questioned, but Carter and his 19-year-old friend, John Artis, were brought back to the scene of the crime, where they were welcomed by an unruly mob.
The police questioned Carter and Artis for 17 hours. They both passed lie detector tests and were released. But five months later, they were arrested and charged for triple-homicide, based on the testimony of two ex-convicts, Alfred Bello and James Bradley.
"When these two criminals testified for the state in 1966, they had nine or ten armed robberies throughout New Jersey to answer for," Carter said in a 1975 interview. "Brendan Byrne, who was then the Essex County prosecutor, went around to all the judges in his county and had them quash all those indictments because the testified against me."
In 1967, an all-white jury convicted Carter and Artis and, despite the prosecutors' insistence of the death penalty, they received three life terms.
Carter served seven years before witnesses Bello and Bradley admitted they were pressured by the Paterson police to give false testimonies. They received $10,000 reward money and dismissal of pending criminal charges.
"I was 23 years old and facing 80 to 90 years in jail [for robbery]," Bradley told the The New Jersey Supreme Court overturned the case and Carter and Artis were finally released on bail in 1976.
Yet months later, the prosecution changed their strategy and stated the crimes were "motivated by racial revenge," and Carter and Artis were reconvicted and sentenced to the same three-life terms.
In 1981, Artis is released on parole after serving 15 years. Carter tries for an appeal in 1982, which is rejected. But in 1985, with the support and evidence gathered by Canadians Lesra Martin, Sam Chalton, Terry Swinton, and Lisa Peters, Judge H. Lee Sarokin overturned the second-trial convictions when he found the prosecution had committed constitutional violations.
The prosecutors then stated Carter is "dangerous and should remain in prison pending the state's appeal."
Sarokin found no evidence to support the prosecutions' concerns and he ordered Carter free without bail.
"Human decency mandates his immediate release," Sarokin said.
After serving 19 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit, "Hurricane" Carter was finally a free man. For the next three years, the prosecution continued to appeal a third trial and their contention that Carter was dangerous, but their efforts failed.
Carter's manuscript from his years in prison, The 16th Round: From Number I Contender to Number 45472, was published in 1974. It recounted his life, his horrific treatment in prison, and the injustices and prejudices within the legal system.
After his charges were dismissed in 1988, Carter moved to Canada and helped Chalton and Swinson write Lazarus and the Hurricane. Both this book and Artis moved to Portsmouth, Va., where he works with troubled youths.
"Being in prison is like being dead, and I want these kids to know that," Artis said. "When we were cleared, no one even apologized."
Carter continues to write and lectures at colleges across North America. He will be speaking at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 24 in Webster Auditorium. Admission is free and the event is open to the public.
Published by The Chart on 4-21-00.
Article's Posting at the Chart's Website
