The Hurricane: Fact vs Fiction
Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter vs George Benton Rubin Carter, a former middleweight boxer nicknamed ‘Hurricane’ for his fighting style is one of the world’s most famous victims of injustice, having spent 18 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He was further immortalized by the Bob Dylan song Hurricane which was sung to protest his 1967 conviction of the killings of three people in a bar, the same conviction re-imposed on Carter in 1976. In 1985, Carter was released by a federal judge who ruled that the former middleweight contender had not received a fair trial noting that the case was based on racism and the withholding of evidence. Following his release, Carter became an advocate for the wrongly accused. In 1999, The Hurricane directed by Norman Jewison was released, starring Denzel Washington in the title role and focusing on Carter’s prison plight and the people who fought for his release. While the film was nominated