Sat. Aug. 14 2004 8:51 AM ET
Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter quits justice group
Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter
Canadian Press
TORONTO — Former boxer Rubin (Hurricane) Carter resigned Friday from an organization that fights for the wrongly convicted because some of its directors refuse to oppose the appointment of an Ontario judge.
Carter, the group's executive director, said the position of his five colleagues has undermined the integrity of the organization, the Association in the Defence of the Wrongly Convicted.
"I have to let this baby go," Carter told journalists Friday.
"I will no longer engage in a power struggle with ADWC's board of directors," he added.
"Which will only mean that innocent people behind bars will only languish there for want of an advocate."
The judge in question is Susan MacLean of the Ontario Court of Justice.
Before her appointment to the bench, MacLean was a member of the prosecution in the notorious miscarriage of justice involving Guy Paul Morin, who was twice convicted in the murder of his nine-year-old neighbour Christine Jessop of Queensville, Ont.
Carter himself spent two decades behind bars for a triple murder in New Jersey although he was innocent of the crime.
He founded the Toronto-based association, which has garnered international respect for its its work on behalf of the wrongly convicted, in 1993.
He said he would return to the organization if the five unnamed directors, who are also lawyers, leave the board.
ONTARIO SUPERIOR ONTARIO PROV. ONTARIO COURT OF APPEAL
613-482-1112
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