Judge who freed boxer ‘Hurricane’ Carter dies at 94

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The federal judge who freed boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter and famously said tobacco companies engaged in a “vast” conspiracy to conceal the dangers of smoking has died in California.

The San Diego Union-Tribune says H. Lee Sarokin died Tuesday in La Jolla at 94. Sarokin was a judge in New Jersey in 1985 when he threw out Carter’s triple-murder conviction on grounds of racism.

In 1988, Sarokin presided over a landmark liability case against tobacco companies. He said evidence showed the tobacco industry engaged in a conspiracy “vast in its scope, devious in its purpose and devastating in its results.” Evidence from that trial paved the way for a wave of future state lawsuits.