March 25, 2003
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@ sa.ucsb.edu
Rubin “Hurricane” Carter presents his film biography The Hurricane at UCSB Isla Vista Theater
Summary Facts:
- Rubin “Hurricane” Carter
- Noted fighter for social justice, Carter spent 22 years in jail on a murder charge finally overturned
- Carter will introduce and discuss his film biography The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington
- Presented as part of the series Executing Justice: America and the Death Penalty
- Saturday, April 26
- 7:30 pm / UCSB Isla Vista Theater
- General public $6 / UCSB students $5
- Tickets/Information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at 893-3535
Former boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who narrowly escaped the electric chair and had his murder charged overturned after 22 years in jail, will introduce a screening of his film biography The Hurricane on Saturday, April 26 at 7:30 pm in UCSB Isla Vista Theater and hold a question and answer session after the film. Today Carter serves as Executive Director of the Toronto-based Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted, a group dedicated to championing the cases of those who have been falsely imprisoned.
Carter’s professional boxing career began in 1961, and his fast and furious style instantly made him a crowd favorite. Five years later, while preparing for a World Championship middleweight fight, Carter was arrested (along with his friend John Artis) for a triple-murder in his hometown Paterson, New Jersey. He steadfastly maintained his innocence, providing a solid alibi while lacking any motive to commit the crime. The police never found the murder weapons and the key witnesses were petty thieves. Nonetheless, Carter was convicted and sentenced to three life terms, narrowly escaping the electric chair.
Carter’s case attracted international attention upon the publication of his autobiography The Sixteenth Round: From Number 1 Contender to #45472, and the recantations of the state’s two key witnesses in 1974. Carter became a civil-rights cause célèbre and was immortalized in the Bob Dylan song, “Hurricane.” During the six-month period of the new trial, Carter was a free man, but again he was found guilty, and he was sent back to prison. After years of teaching himself the law in an effort to win freedom, Carter gave away his law books and turned to literature in a search for meaning. In 1982 the New Jersey Supreme Court examined his case, only to affirm the conviction.
It wasn’t until 1985 that his 22-year-old indictment was finally dismissed by a federal appeals court on constitutional grounds, claiming the prosecution had withheld evidence and “fatally infected” the trial with racial revenge theories. This ruling was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988.
Currently living in Canada, Carter fights for social justice with numerous groups. A member of the Board of Directors of the Southern Center for Human Rights and the Alliance for Prison Justice, Carter has addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations, advised President Bill Clinton on death penalty issues, and spoken alongside President Nelson Mandela at the first World Reconciliation Day in Australia. Of his experience he notes, “I’ve learned that bitterness only consumes; somehow, some way, you have to get over it. You have to beat it.”
The somewhat fictionalized account of Rubin Carter’s life, The Hurricane (Norman Jewison, 1999, 120 minutes), won Denzel Washington an Academy Award nomination for his stunning lead performance. Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan writes, “Denzel Washington’s career has not lacked for exceptional roles; he’s been nominated for Oscars and even won one. But nothing really prepares us for what he does in The Hurricane. With power, intensity, remarkable range and an ability to disturb that is both unnerving and electric, it is more than Washington’s most impressive part, it sums up his career as well, encapsulating the reasons why he’s one of the very best actors working in film today.”
Courtesy of the UCSB Bookstore, books by Rubin Carter will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
This evening is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures with the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center and the UCSB Law and Society Program with support from the Critical Issues in America Program as part of the series Executing Justice: America and the Death Penalty.
For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.
Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.