TORONTO/NEW YORK: Former US professional boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who spent 19 years in prison for murder and then was released after it was determined he did not get a fair trial, died on Sunday at the age of 76, according to reports in the Canadian media.
Carter, considered a folk hero by many and immortalized in film and song, had been battling prostate cancer for months, according to reports by the Toronto Globe and Mail and the CBC. He died in Toronto, where he had been living since he was released from prison in 1985, according to the reports.
Once a middleweight boxer who earned a world title fight in 1964, Carter is more well known for the turn his life took after he was arrested for a triple homicide in 1966.
That arrest, his imprisonment, and the ultimately successful battle to free him are immortalized in the 1975 Bob Dylan song “Hurricane” and the 1999 film of the same name, which starred Denzel Washington as Carter.
Crater was born in 1937 in Clifton, New Jersey.
Carter is survived by two children from his first marriage to Mae Thelma. (Agencies)
