Ex-Boxer Carter Out of Prison; Prosecutor Will Appeal Release

Former boxer Rubin (Hurricane) Carter, whose triple murder conviction was overturned on grounds of racial prejudice, was ordered freed on his own recognizance by a federal judge Friday.

U.S. District Judge H. Lee Sarokin said that it would be a “travesty” to hold Carter in jail any longer than the 19 years he has already served, despite prosecutors’ contentions that he is “frightening” and “violent.”

Sarokin released Carter without bail.

Hugs Co-Defendant

“We finally made it,” a jubilant Carter, 48, said as he hugged John Artis, his former co-defendant in the slaying of three people in a Paterson, N. J., tavern in 1966.

“Thank God it’s over,” said Doris Carter of Paterson, the freed man’s sister. “We always knew he was innocent, and now, at last, he is free, and we hope forever.”

Sarokin Thursday overturned the convictions of Carter and Artis, saying that they were tinged with racism and violations of the defendants’ constitutional rights. Artis had been free on probation since 1981.

Prosecutors’ emergency plea to a federal appeals court to postpone Carter’s release was denied. The judge ruled that there is not sufficient evidence that Carter is a threat to society to keep him in Rahway State Prison during an appeal of his order dismissing Carter’s murder conviction.

“I believe the evidence shows Mr. Carter committed these offenses--and they are brutal killings,” said prosecutor John Goceljak, who predicted that the case would go to the Supreme Court.

Two Life Sentences

He vowed to appeal on a non-emergency basis and attempt to return Carter to Rahway to resume serving two consecutive life sentences.

“I cannot permit Mr. Carter to spend another day or even another hour in jail,” the judge said. “His past imprisonment may have been a travesty. To continue it would be an even greater travesty. Human decency mandates his release.”