As a boxer, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who has died aged 76, was a middleweight Sonny Liston, an ex-convict whose only skill seemed to be inflicting hurt, which made him all the more intimidating to opponents. But Carter was a more flamboyant public figure than Liston and in the racially charged atmosphere of Paterson, New Jersey, in 1966, that was a dangerous thing. His biggest fight turned out to be against his conviction for a triple homicide in a Paterson bar, a fight which over the course of nearly 18 years in prison saw him transformed from street thug into a public symbol of racial injustice.
The campaign attracted celebrity backers and spawned a Bob Dylan song, Hurricane, released in 1975, which became its theme. It led to Carter's conviction being quashed, and, after a retrial found him guilty again, to an eventual overturning of his second conviction as well.
Continue reading...