Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter Dead

Daily Beast ^ | April 20, 2014

[SMGFan]

Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, the boxer who infamously served 19 years in jail after he was wrongly convicted for a triple murder, passed away Sunday in Toronto at the age of 76. Immortalized in a Bob Dylan song and a 1999 feature film, Carter was jailed in 1966 for a fatal shooting at a bar in New Jersey. Although he and his acquaintance John Artis passed a lie detector test and professed their innocence, the all-white jury convicted them. After multiple legal efforts, in 1985 a federal judge ruled that the convictions of Carter and Artis were based "upon an appeal to racism rather than reason and concealment rather than disclosure.” Once freed, Carter began a new life in Canada and devoted himself to helping others who were wrongly convicted.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Carter was guilty as hell, convicted twice by juries who heard the evidence. He was released by a judge based on a song by Bob Dylan.

[longfellow]

From what i heard his story is bullshitte. If you watch the fight he claims to have won, he didn’t.

[driftless2]

That was a time when many black men like Carter were supposedly railroaded into jail. At least many white libs like Dylan swallowed those stories. I read Carter’s ghostwritten bio, which contained a number of stories of which I was extremely skeptical as to their veracity. I don’t know for sure if he did the crime he was put in prison for or not, but he was a violent person in and out of the ring.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

HOAX:

http://www.stand-deliver.com/syndicated/2000/000217.asp

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

There was no mention of the four people who were murdered in that Paterson bar 34 years ago. No mention of the fact that two juries found him guilty. Fact is Carter was never “exonerated.” Rather he was let out of prison in 1985 because a federal judge found that there had been “procedural errors” in the second trial. Despite eyewitnesses who tied Carter to the murder, as well as tons of other solid evidence, the prosecutors in Passaic County decided not to try the case a third time.

All this was ignored by Oprah and in the new movie. Just a tribute to Hurricane Carter. Like Denzel, Oprah owes the families of Carter’s victims (not to mention her loyal audience) an apology.

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Despite eyewitnesses who tied Carter to the murder, as well as tons of other solid evidence

I don't know the details, but according to Wikipedia:

"Carter was driving a white Dodge, matching the description of the car as white,and police stopped it and brought Carter and another occupant, John Artis, to the scene about 31 minutes after the incident. There was little physical evidence; police took no fingerprints at the crime scene, and lacked the facilities to test Carter and Artis for gunshot residue. None of the eyewitnesses identified Carter or Artis as the shooters. Carter, in fact, was brought to the hospital the evening of the shooting at approximately 4 a.m., and victim Willie Marins identified Carter as not one of the shooters. On searching the car about 45 minutes later, Detective Emil DiRobbio found a live .32 caliber pistol round under the front passenger seat and a 12-gauge shotgun shell in the trunk. Ballistics later established that the murder weapons had been a .32 caliber pistol and a 12-gauge shotgun. The defense later raised questions about this evidence, as it was not logged with a property clerk until five days after the murders."

Apparently the only eye-witnesses were two thieves who'd been burglarizing a factory near the shooting that night - and they identified Carter as a shooter months after the shooting. They recanted several years later. Carter also had witnesses place him at a nearby nightclub at the time of the shooting. The most damning evidence to me seems to have been the guns, which weren't logged the night of the shootings but only after five days.

I'm no lawyer, but to me there seems enough reasonable doubt there to acquit if I'd been a juror.

[KC_Conspirator]

He was never acquitted. A liberal judge just overturned his trial. Furthermore, the person that "recanted" his story only did so because Hurricane's defense team bribed him with 27k.

No doubt that there has been racism in our justice system in the past. However, Hurricane's story sounds like a bunch of BS.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Wikipedia is wrong. Calvin Deal, a journalist who covered the story at the time, has a website, which is not available now. Go here for a summary:

http://vnnforum.com/archive/index.php/t-31259.html

The website is http://www.graphicwitness.com/carter/

It may no longer be maintained of may be suffering a dos attack or is just overloaded. Try again later.

Carter was a vile and evil murderer hiding behind claims of racism. Who could blame him? He would have been executed if not for the goofball supreme court tossing capital punishment.

[PhiloBedo]

Reminds me of the line uttered by Howie Long’s character in 2000 Miles to Graceland.

“He’s so bad, Bob Dylan wrote a song to keep him in prison”.

[Larry Milk]

Great song!

[newfreep]

Different studio take of Dylan’s song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr8Wn1Mwwwk

[AppyPappy]

“and they identified Carter as a shooter months after the shooting. They recanted several years later. “

Why would you believe someone that admitted to lying?

[dfwgator]

Looks like Hurricane has been downgraded.

[dfwgator]

The original Mumia.

[KC_Conspirator]

If you read more into this, you will find that they were bribed to recant their stories.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Why would you believe someone that admitted to lying?

I don't believe or know anything about the case besides a bad Dylan song, but that's sort of the point - the only eye-witnesses were apparently questionable characters with their own legal troubles. When the only witnesses are two career criminals with the usual reasons for a criminal facing jail-time to lie, I see grounds for a reasonable doubt.

Others have posted that there were substantive reasons to believe Carter did the crime beyond what's posted in Wikipedia. I sincerely hope so - the guy was imprisoned for 19 years.

[PghBaldy]

While leftists won’t admit it, “wrongly convicted” does NOT necessarily mean “innocent.”

[a fool in paradise]

Once freed, Carter began a new life in Canada and devoted himself to helping others who were wrongly convicted.

Once freed, he beat the crap out of his girlfriend.

Liberals support losers.

The Demcrapweasel War on Women continues.

[a fool in paradise]

Joni Mitchell regrets singing and fundraising on his behalf.