[Locke.]

Rubin Carter, a former middleweight world title contender known as "the Hurricane” whose wrongful conviction for murder became a cause célèbre, died in Toronto on Sunday at the age of 76.

The boxer's death was confirmed by a caregiver and associate, John Artis.

Carter, who as a young man escaped from reform school, joined the army and had a career as a petty criminal, had a professional boxing career that began in 1961 and ended in 1966.

He won 27 times, with 19 knockouts, and lost 12 times, one of them a knockout. He tied one bout. In 1964 he fought Joey Giardello for the WBC and WBA middleweight titles, losing on a unanimous points decision.

In 1967 he was convicted, alongside Artis, for three murders at the Lafayette Grill in New Jersey the year before. The murder victims were white; the perpetrators black. Carter and Artis were convicted by an all-white jury, largely on the testimony of two thieves who later recanted their stories.

Carter was jailed until 1985, when his convictions were set aside. In 1975, a year before a second trial confirmed Carter's conviction – after a brief period of freedom – Bob Dylan released the song Hurricane, detailing the allegedly racial motivations behind the boxer's imprisonment. In 1999, Denzel Washington played Carter in a film of the same name.

A number of books also dealt with the case, including Carter's autobiography, The Sixteenth Round, which attracted Dylan's attention.

In later years, living in Canada, Carter worked with the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted. In 2000, speaking to the Guardian on the eve of the release of Hollywood's version of the story, he said: “Many innocent people are locked up, and somebody ought to be held accountable.”

In February, Carter wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Daily News, in which he sought freedom for David McCallum, a man he said had been wrongly convicted.

In the piece, Carter wrote that he was “quite literally on my deathbed”, and added: “If I find a heaven after this life, I’ll be quite surprised. In my own years on this planet, though, I lived in hell for the first 49 years, and have been in heaven for the past 28 years.”

It was reported at the time that Carter was suffering from terminal cancer.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/201...-boxer-dies-76

I've been interested in this case for ages and have read a lot about it and seen the film loads of times.. sad that he has died, I hadn't realized that he was deep into his 70's already.

Youtube video

[Ramsay]

RIP
Actually was listening to that Hurricane song about an hour ago

[GypsyGoth]

The movie is great

[Shaun]

Love the song, never seen the movie. Sure I will someday though. R.I.P.