“Hurricane”


Now all the criminals in their coats and their ties
Are free to drink martinis and watch the sun rise
While Rubin sits like Buddha in a ten-foot cell
An innocent man in a living hell
That’s the story of the Hurricane
But it won’t be over till they clear his name
And give him back the time he’s done
Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been
The champion of the world. Bob Dylan 1975 Rolling Thunder Tour

Bob Dylan and Hurricane Carter collaborated on this song about Hurricane Carter who was wrongfully convicted for murder with the testimonies of two other thieves by an all white jury. In 1976, he was released briefly, then convicted again, and returned to prison for another 9 years. U.S. District Judge H. Lee Sarokin, who wrote that Carter’s prosecution had been “predicated upon an appeal to racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure” released Carter permanently from prison November 1985. Former boxer Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter dies at age 76

After his final release, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter “became the first executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, serving in the post between 1993 and 2004. He became highly respected as an activist for the wrongly convicted, and his work personally impacted many attorneys.”

Hurricane died at 76 years of age.