Name and Date of Case
Rubin Carter Case
June 17, 1966
Initial Description
In 1966, police arrested Rubin Carter and his friend John Artis for a triple homicide committed in the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey. These two men were described as, “two negroes in a white car”, an extremely racist description. Police stopped Carter’s car and brought him and Artis to the crime scene. Upon searching the vehicle, the police found ammunition that fit the weapons used in the murder. Police took no fingerprints at the scene of the crime and lacked the equipment needed to conduct a paraffin test for gunshot residue.
Police Investigation
Alfred Bello was an eyewitness near the Lafayette on the night of the triple homicide. He gave
…show more content…
Brown. Brown’s strategy was to focus on inconsistencies in some of the descriptions given by Willie Marins and Alfred Bello. The defense produced a number of witnesses who testified that Carter and Artis had been in the Nite Spot (a nearby bar) at the time of the shooting. Both men were convicted. Prosecutors sought the death penalty, but jurors recommended that each defendant received a life sentence. In 1974, Bello confessed that he had previously lied about his testimony and blaming it on the fact that he had received “special treatment” from the police. In 1976, this information became available to the general public and the New Jersey State Supreme Court ruled in favor of Carter and Artis. However, after 6 months, they were convicted again for a second trial when Bello reversed his …show more content…
Once the police heard that two black men had done the shooting, they instantly became bias. The first two men they found that fit the criteria of the killers were automatically guilty to the police because of their race. There was very minimal evidence that led them to believe Carter and Artis were guilty, yet they spent their whole life in jail for it anyway. Habeus Corpus was the biggest miscarriage of justice in this case, beyond a reasonable doubt. The police had no reason to arrest or detain the men, all they had was the colour of their car and the colour of their