When the defense lawyers found out about the polygraph issues, they filed motions for a new trial. The trial judge denied the motion, but the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered him to conduct a hearing on the polygraph issues. After a fifteen-day hearing, the judge ruled against Carter and Artis on all issues.
When the defense lawyers appealed the judge's rulings on the polygraph issue, for the first time it seemed as though things might work out for the defendants. In 1981, the New Jersey Supreme Court UNANIMOUSLY decided the government had committed a Brady violation. (Scroll down about 40% for a brief discussion on the Brady Rule.) Withholding crucial evidence about the polygraph results - in the face of an absolute requirement not to - could have resulted in the murder convictions being thrown out.
Instead, in a 4-3 decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court said Carter and Artis failed to show the polygraph evidence would "have been material to the outcome" of the case. The high court did NOT order a new trial and Rubin Carter was destined to spend the rest of his life in prison. John Artis, in the meantime, had been released on parole.
Rubin Hurricane Carter had exhausted all his appeals - or so he thought. He believed he would never get out. He was so depressed he told his wife never to come back and see him again. He just couldn't bear that nothing more could be done. He couldn't imagine that an innocent man would spend the rest of his life in prison.
But Rubin's life was about to take an unexpected turn. A group of nine aging Toronto hippies, and a young man from a Brooklyn ghetto, were reading The 16th Round. They read Rubin Carter's plea for help:
I come to you in the only manner left open to me. I've tried the courts, exhausted my life's earnings, and tortured my two loved ones with little grains and tidbits of hope that may never materialize. Now the only chance I have is in appealing directly to you, the people, and showing you the wrongs that have yet to be righted...the injustice that has been done to me. For the first time in my entire existence I'm saying that I need some help.
Like many others, they were convinced Carter and Artis were innocent. Unlike all others, three of the Canadians were willing to move to Paterson. They were willing to help. They wanted to do something about exposing the lies on which they believed Carter's conviction rested.
GO TO LAST CHAPTER BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER GO TO NEXT CHAPTER