The ruling was overturned but Carter convicted again in 1976, a year after celebrated singer Bob Dylan released his “Hurricane” song and supported Carter’s fight to prove his innocence. Dylan was inspired by Carter’s 1975 biography The Sixteenth Round which helped shape the background for the 1999 Denzel Washington film, The Hurricane.
After a long appeals battle, Carter’s attorneys were able to get the case thrown out. Carter walked out of prison in November 1985 at the age of 48.
Three years later, a Passaic County prosecutor filed a motion to dismiss the charges altogether. Carter, who conceded in several interviews that he was not perfect, eventually became the executive director of Canadian non-profit Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted. He led the organization from 1993 to 2005.
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Little Known Black History Fact: Rubin “Hurricane” Carter was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
