Murder Conviction of Boxer ‘Hurricane’ Carter Voided; Judge Cites Racial Bias

With a stinging rebuke to the prosecution, a federal judge ruled Thursday that former boxer Rubin (Hurricane) Carter’s second conviction for triple murder was the result of racial prejudice and that he should be released after almost 19 years in a New Jersey state prison.

At the time of his second trial, the case of the former top contender for the world middleweight title drew widespread publicity. Bob Dylan recorded a ballad of support titled “Hurricane” and celebrities, including Muhammad Ali, helped raise $600,000 for a defense fund.

But, after his second conviction, celebrity interest evaporated and Carter was left with the lonely task of helping to draft much of the legal brief that brought about the favorable ruling.

U.S. Judge H. Lee Sarokin ruled that the convictions of Carter, 48, and John Artis, charged with being his accomplice in the killing of three people in a Paterson, N. J., bar and grill on June 17, 1966, were based on “racial stereotypes.”

“The jury was permitted to draw inferences of guilt based solely upon the race of the petitioners, but yet was denied information which may have supported their claims of innocence,” the judge continued. “To permit convictions to stand which have as their foundation appeals to racial prejudice and the withholding of evidence critical to the defense is to commit a violation of the Constitution as heinous as the crimes for which these petitioners were tried and convicted.”

“Our struggle has paid off,” Carter told Edward Graves, one of his lawyers.

” . . . This is a case that should never have happened. It’s a case of passion and prejudice that was wrong from the beginning. And the judge’s decision today said it loud and clear,” Myron Beldock, Carter’s chief attorney, said.

Artis, who had been paroled in 1981, was present at the crowded news conference in the Manhattan offices of his and Carter’s lawyers.

“It’s a ray of hope rather than sitting in a 6 by 7 by 8 (cell). I can’t wait to see Rubin,” Artis said.

Judge Sarokin allowed Carter to apply immediately for release from Rahway State Prison. A hearing is expected today.

Whether prosecutors will seek to try the case again was not known Thursday.

Prosecutors charged that Carter and Artis started the shooting spree in the predominantly white Lafayette Bar and Grill to retaliate for the shooting of a black man earlier in the day. Carter, who was reaching the peak of his boxing career, and Artis, who was about to enter college on a scholarship, were arrested four months after the crime.

But, in his decision, Judge Sarokin attacked the prosecution’s contention. “Underlying the prosecutor’s theory and summation is the insidious and repugnant argument that this heinous crime is to be understood and explained solely because the petitioners are black and the victims are white,” Sarokin said.

“Without that unacceptable assumption, the prosecution’s theory of racial revenge becomes a thin thread of largely irrelevant evidence and impermissible inferences.”