In September 1980, about six years after Viking had published The 16th Round, Lesra ("Lazarus") Martin was enjoying his new life in Toronto. The year before, the young man from the Bushwick section of Brooklyn had met a group of former Canadian hippies, now Toronto entrepreneurs, who happened to be testing a new product in the Environmental Protection Lab where Lesra had a summer job.

Believing that Lesra had tremendous promise, and concerned he would not fulfill his potential in Brooklyn, the Canadians convinced Lesra's father to let the boy live with them in Toronto. Life was going well for Lesra. He was actualizing his potential, and his appetite for reading was increasing. At a Toronto book fair, Lesra spotted The 16th Round which he bought for $1.

As he read the book, Lesra was mesmerized. He identified with Rubin Carter. He began to read passages of The 16th Round out loud. His Canadian "family" became immersed in the book as well. By its end, all believed Carter was innocent.

Checking out what had happened to Carter during the ensuing years, the Canadians learned all about Bello, the alleged lies and the new trial. Lesra wrote to Rubin and was surprised when the once-famous boxer responded.

Sam Chaiton, the son of Holocaust survivors from Bergen-Belsen; Terry Swinton and his sister Kathy, children of a wealthy Toronto businessman; and Lisa Peters, a student and the divorced mother of a young son, believed they and their friends could do something to make a difference in Carter's life. Still embracing the ideals they had as young adults, Chaiton, Terry Swinton and Peters met with Rubin Carter in 1981. The blocked road to Carter's freedom opened a little that day.

Lesra had already met with Carter during the 1980 Christmas holidays. But meeting Rubin Carter was no easy matter for a young boy from Brooklyn. Carter was at Trenton Prison, the place where Richard Bruno Hauptmann had been executed for allegedly kidnapping the Lindbergh baby. Visitors at Trenton met with inmates in the abandoned cells of death row, next to the execution chamber.

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