Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, the subject of Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane,” passed away at the age of 76 last night. The former boxer was wrongfully convicted of a triple murder, sparking widespread accusations of racial profiling.

With very little physical evidence to tie Carter and his friend John Artis to the crime scene, the public believed that the boxer’s conviction was the result of racism. While the actual shooters were identified as black males, eyewitnesses did not directly identify Carter nor Artis as the shooters.

The boxer spent nearly 20 years in prison, before eventually being released. He then moved to Canada, and campaigned for the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted from 1993 to 2005. He often worked as a motivational speaker, and during the 2012 International Justice Conference in Australia, revealed that he was suffering from prostate cancer.

At that point, Carter was given three to six months to live. He lived for two years, under the care of his longtime companion John Artis. 

The saga of Carter was captured by the 1975 song “Hurricane” by Bob Dylan, a tribute to Carter’s suffering and a outcry against civil injustice. You can listen to the ballad below:

Hopefully The Hurricane can now rest in peace.

-David Melamed (@DMelamz)

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