Mumia Abu Jamal on the life and death of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter

The Hurricane: Rubin Carter

He was born in New Jersey 76 years ago as Rubin Carter, but most people knew him as “The Hurricane” – his ring name – earned after a dizzying career as a ferocious middleweight with a mean left hook.

Rubin’s hardest fight was not in a boxing ring, but in a Paterson, New Jersey courtroom, where prosecutors twice tried – and twice convicted – Carter and his co-defendant, John Artis, of a triple-murder of three whites in 1966 in a bar.

Rubin served 19 years in Trenton State Prison before a federal judge in Camden, Lee Sarokin, tossed the three convictions in 1985, ruling that the state’s case rested upon “racial stereotypes, fears and prejudice,” not facts.

Carter carried a laminated copy of the case in his inside jacket pocket for the rest of his life, calling it his “freedom papers.”

He had a sweet sense of humor and was, inside and out, a beautiful man.

After his freedom, he left the U.S. to live and work in Canada, fighting against corrupt convictions from coast to coast.

He once met former president, Bill Clinton, and told him that if his 1996 revision of Habeas Corpus law had been in effect when he went to court, he would never have been freed.

Rubin “Hurricane” Carter was a man of gentleness, joy, light and strength.

From Imprisoned Nation, this is Mumia Abu Jamal.

(These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio. Photo of Rubin Carter by Michael Borkson, used under Creative Commons license.)