e sentences were reinstated.The defense lawyers found out about the polygraph results and filed motions for a new trial. This motion went to the New Jersey Supreme Court, which ordered a hearing on the polygraph issues. After a fifteen-day hearing, the judge ruled against Carter and Artis on all issues. They appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court of New Jersey, which ruled against Carter and Artis 4-3. The decision was based on the fact that Carter and Artis failed to show their own polygraph results from the original trial. Carter was sent back to prison while Artis had been released on parole.Carter was out of appeals, or so he thought. However, his life was about to take an unexpected turn. A group of nine Canadians and a young black man from Brooklyn, Slover 5Lesra Martin, were reading The 16th Round. They began their fight for Carter’s freedom. By the fall of 1983, the Canadians sold their Toronto house. Three of them and Lesra moved to New Jersey to assist Carter’s lawyers.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 suit would be a civil suit filed against the person having custody over Rubin Carter, John Rafferty, Superintendent of Rahway State Prison. A Writ of Habeas Corpus is the only way in which the federal judiciary can correct abuses of the Bill of Rights at the state court level.Habeas Corpus, which is Latin for "you have the body." Prisoners often seek release by filing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. It is a judicial mandate to a prison official, ordering that an inmate be brought before the court so it can be decided whether or not that person is imprisoned lawfully and whether or not he should be released from custody. A habeas corpus petition is filed with a court by a person who objects to his own or another’s detention or impri...
