"The Story
of the Hurricane"
"Here comes
the story of the Hurricane, The man authorities came to blame, For something
that he never done. Put in a prison
cell, but one time he could-a been the champion of the world." Those are lyrics from a song by Bob
Dylan. Bob Dylan made this song to give
justice to the man known as Rubin "The Hurricane" Carter. This song explains the trials and
tribulations of Rubin's life. In this
paper I this paper I hope to explain the story of Rubin Carter and his ups and
downs in life. Rubin Carter was born in
Clifton, New Jersey (apbspeakers.com p1).
When Rubin was a young man he was teased. He was teased due to a speech impediment that
he had. The only way Rubin knew how to
deal with this was to fight. Carter had
to get out of that kind of atmosphere, so he enlisted in the United States
army. It was there where he learned how
to box. Carter became The European
Welterweight Champion two years in a row.
This was the first thing he really excelled in. Rubin began his professional boxing career in
1961 (apbspeaker p1). Carter was know
for knocking out his opponents in the first round with his vicious left
hook. Carter soon became known as
"the Hurricane."
All of his glory
came to a screeching hault in 1966.
Rubin Carter and a teenager named John Artis were arrested for the
murders of three people in a New Jersey bar.
They were convicted and sentenced to three life terms in prison.
The electric
chair was sought to be the way for Rubin and Artis to go. They both kept their innocence and weren't sent
to the electric chair. While Carter was
in jail he published a book about himself.
This book was called the sixteenth round. "Carter went from the number one
contender to number 45472 (apbspeakers.com p2)." While Carter and Artis were in jail they were
known all over the world for civil rights.
Rubin Carter received most of the fame with the song
"Hurricane" by Bob Dylan. Bob
Dylan believed that the men were innocent.
Rubin even had support from the most famous boxer in the world, Muhammad
Ali! After evidence showed that perjury
and vital evidence has been withheld from the defense, all of the convictions
were thrown out by the New Jersey supreme court. When Carter and Artis thought they were free
they were wrong. The men were retried and convicted for the murders. Rubin
didn't give up hope. But Artis did give
up hope. He just couldn't take it and died while in prison. Rubin finally was able to tell his side of
the story to the Federal Court. He did
this with the assistance of Myron Beldock and Professor Leon Friedman in
1985. "The United States District
Court ruled that Carter's conviction had been based on racism rather than
reason and concealment rather than disclosure and that his imprisonment had
been a travesty (apbspeakers.com p2)."
This man was held in jail for more than nineteen years for a crime he
did not commit. Also a innocent
adolescent died while incarcerated for a crime he never committed. Finally in 1988 this indictment against
Carter was dismissed and all over. Many
attempts were made after this to put Carter back in jail, but none were
successful.
The story of
this man and his 19 year long fight was made into a movie. Norman Jewison was the director of this movie
called "The Hurricane". Denzel
Washington played the part of Rubin Carter.
This movie is a great representation of what happened, but there's a few
differences. Carter's white supporters
do some good deeds, from the adoption of a black teen to relocate to the U.S.
in order to free Rubin. The director
wanted to show that there are good and bad in this world. The trio that helps Rubin is considered
"good people" and the racist cop is "the bad guy". These character's are fiction, but make this
movie more dramatic.
Denzel
Washington performance was unbelievable.
He had me believing that he was actually a man that was framed for
murder. The way Denzel showed his
feelings while in jail and when being freed from jail. The cop was fictitious, but showed the
ignorance that put Rubin in jail. The
cop just tried to make Rubin's life miserable.
That cop did in fact make his life miserable for more than 19
years. In prison, Carter makes up his
mind that his mission must now be to live in prison forever with dignity and
internal justification. He never leaves
his cell because he's training himself.
In the end this movie makes a very convincing case to oppose capital
punishment.
Today Carter is
a speaker all over discussing issues such as wrongful convictions and the death
penalty. He lives in Toronto,
Ontario. He was also was honored by the
World Boxing Council with the WBC Championship Belt. To end this paper I'm going to leave you with
a quote from Rubin Carter. Now with this
movie completed, Carter said he has a sense of release. He also said, "I don't care what it does
at the box office, to me, the blockbuster already happened!"(jsonline
p1-2)
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