By the fall of 1983, the Canadians decided to sell their large home in Toronto. Three of them - Chaiton, Peters and Terry Swinton - would move to New Jersey to assist Carter's lawyers. The others would move into a smaller home with Lesra who, by this time, was a straight-A high school graduate headed for the University of Toronto.

If Carter had exhausted all his appeals, what was left for so many people and lawyers to do? Leon Friedman, a renowned constitutional scholar, was assisting Myron Beldock and Lewis Steel, lawyers for Carter and Artis, in their efforts to file a Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus.

The case would be a civil suit filed against the person having custody over Rubin Carter - John Rafferty, Superintendent of Rahway State Prison -  where Carter had been transferred. It was a last-ditch effort to get the Federal District Court to order Rafferty to release Rubin Carter. Why? Because habeas corpus allows the federal court to determine whether a prisoner is being wrongfully detained. The "Great Writ" of Habeas Corpus is the only instrument with which the federal judiciary can correct perceived abuses of the Bill of Rights at the state-court level.

Such petitions require enormous work. It is often the last protection an innocent prisoner has against wrongful imprisonment. A petition is filed in a different court - a federal court if there is a violation of the U.S. Constitution - and the evidence of violation must be significant. It is not just another way to appeal a lost case. The object is to get an order which requires the official who "has the body" (habeas corpus) to release the prisoner. If habeas corpus fails, the prisoner usually has no other alternatives.

The three Canadians spent nearly two years looking for evidence and witnesses. Their efforts were invaluable. By 1985, the Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus was ready. Carter would have one last chance to see whether Bello's alleged perjured testimony and the suppressed polygraph evidence made a material difference to the outcome of his second trial.

GO TO STORY INDEX