Boxer 'Hurricane' Carter Dead at 76

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the former middleweight champion whose wrongful murder conviction was protested in Bob Dylan's iconic song, died this morning of prostate cancer at age 76, reports the New York Times. Carter served 19 years in prison after being twice convicted in a racially charged New Jersey triple murder; the case was eventually overturned and Carter freed in 1985, adds the AP.

"I wouldn't give up," Carter told PBS three years ago. "No matter that they sentenced me to three life terms in prison. I wouldn't give up. Just because a jury of 12 misinformed people ... found me guilty did not make me guilty. And because I was not guilty, I refused to act like a guilty person." At the time of his death Carter was living in Toronto, where he had founded Innocence International, a nonprofit that sought to free wrongfully convicted prisoners.