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In the early 1960s, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter was a household name among families in NYC. An up-and-coming middleweight boxer and a fixture in Madison Square Garden, he became famous after he knocked out 11 of his first 15 professional opponents. But his promising career was cut short when he was wrongfully convicted of a triple murder in 1966.

Carter spent 19 years in prison before a federal judge ruled that he did not receive a fair trial and released him. Carter became an activist and was the first Executive Director of the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted. On this past Easter Sunday, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter passed away at age 76. He is remembered as “a truly courageous man who fought tirelessly to free others who had suffered the same fate as he.”

I know the pain of a wrongful conviction as well. I had just landed a record deal with Violator in 1999 when I was charged with a crime in which I played no part.

I was picked up for a line-up one day, and a witness misidentified me as the culprit in an armed robbery. Now I don’t claim to be a saint, but when you live in a poverty stricken neighborhood, a high-crime area, you are always a target. The night of the crime, I was at home with my family. Prosecutors offered me a plea deal: five years in prison. I thought “this is crazy.” Why would I accept time for a crime I didn’t commit? I would prove my innocence in a court of law.

Instead, I was sentenced to 7-14 years in prison.

My conviction hinged on my identification from the line-up, although eyewitness identifications are proven to be unreliable. How often do you find yourself doing a doubletake at a stranger, thinking you recognize someone you know? Sometimes witnesses just want to make an identification, at all costs, and sometimes they don’t realize they are following hints by the police. Despite the high chance of error, eyewitness identifications are the most common evidence brought against criminal defendants, and the most common element in overturned cases.

It’s no surprise that men of color are much more likely to serve time for crimes they didn’t commit. Cases abound of wrongful convictions; sometimes the truth wins out in time and sometimes not. Troy Davis is widely regarded to have been wrongfully executed after several witnesses came forward saying they were pressured by the police. Today, the men once known as the “Central Park 5” are still fighting for justice.

It would have been easy for me to choose the path of bitterness. When I got out of prison, picking up the pieces of my life was hard. I missed the first seven years of my son’s life. My marriage couldn’t withstand the stress of such a long separation and ended in divorce. I had lost the record deal, the result of years of hard work.

I resolved to share my experience with others, to help them know we all go through things but we can overcome. Recently, I signed up to volunteer to mentor incarcerated youth, to help them deal with their experiences, through the Gathering for Justice, a civil rights organization founded by Harry Belafonte and led by Carmen Perez.

I think Hurricane Carter would have agreed. “Hatred and bitterness and anger only consume the vessel that contains them. It doesn’t hurt another soul,” Carter once said, “If I were to allow myself to continue to feel that anger and the bitterness of being a victim, I would have never survived prison itself… I had to overcome those things.”

Just like Hurricane Carter and many others wrongfully convicted, I want people to understand the justice system has flaws and loopholes—and we have to be aware of that. When we think about the burden of proof and our justice system, we must not ignore the high costs of incarceration—time lost with loved ones, children growing up without a parent, lost plans for a future, and the difficulty of living the rest of one’s life with a criminal record. These are things you can never get back.

-Mysonne Linen