Carter's wrongful murder conviction became an international symbol of racial injustice. The African-American spent 19 years in prison for the 1966 murders of three white people at a tavern in the eastern U.S. state of New Jersey.
Carter and another man, John Artis, were convicted by an all-white jury, largely on the testimony of two thieves who later recanted their stories.
His ordeal and the alleged racial motivations behind it were publicized in Bob Dylan's 1975 song “Hurricane,'” several books and the 1999 film “Hurricane” starring Denzel Washington, who received an Academy Award nomination for playing the boxer-turned-prisoner.
According to Canadian media, Carter, who was from New Jersey, had lived in Toronto since his 1985 prison release, which was aided by a group of Canadian activists. But many had spoken out on Carter's behalf, including former world boxing champion Muhammad Ali.
The U.S. District Court judge who oversaw his release wrote that Carter's prosecution had been "predicated upon an appeal to racism rather than reason, and concealment rather than disclosure."
