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After spending 19 years in jail for a triple murder he didn't commit... Rubin "Hurricane" Carter is now a well-known advocate for the wrongfully convicted. His story of endurance and eventual triumph inspired Norman Jewison to make a movie based on his ordeal, 'The Hurricane' starring Denzel Washington.
On June 17th, 1966, Rubin was in the wrong place and the wrong time when two white men and one white woman were shot inside a bar in New Jersey. He was wrongfully convicted and given a life sentence, derailing his hopes to win a boxing middleweight title. All this - after overcoming a poor childhood and a troubled, delinquent youth. While in prison he wrote a book 'The 16th Round' and sent a copy to Bob Dylan... who released a song about him, "Hurricane". But even after Dylan put his case on the map, Rubin languished in prison for another ten years until a judge finally ruled the case was based on racism and that Rubin didn't get a fair trial.
So, in 1985 - after almost two decades in prison - Rubin was released. A few years later, he moved to Canada. Since then, he's been an activist for the wrongfully convicted, serving as Executive Director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongfully Convicted (AIDWYC) and CEO of Innocence International. Now he's just published his autobiography 'Eye of the Hurricane: My Path From Darkness to Freedom'.
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