TORONTO -- Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the former American boxer who became a global champion for the wrongfully convicted after spending almost 20 years in prison for a triple murder he didnt commit, died at his home in Toronto on Sunday. He was 76. His long-time friend and co-accused, John Artis, said Carter died in his sleep after a lengthy battle with prostate cancer. "Its a big loss to those who are in institutions that have been wrongfully convicted," Artis told The Canadian Press. "He dedicated the remainder of his life, once we were released from prison, to fighting for the cause." Artis quit his job stateside and moved to Toronto to act as Carters caregiver after his friend was diagnosed with cancer nearly three years ago. During the final few months, as Carters health took a turn for the worse, Artis said the man who was immortalized in a Bob Dylan song and a Hollywood film came to grips with the fact that he was dying. "He tried to accomplish as much as he possibly could prior to his passing," Artis said, noting Carters efforts earlier this year to bring about the release of a New York City man incarcerated since 1985 -- the year Carter was freed. "He didnt express very much about his legacy. Thatll be established for itself through the results of his work. Thats primarily what he was concerned about -- his work," Artis said. Born on May 6, 1937, into a family of seven children, Carter struggled with a hereditary speech impediment and was sent to a juvenile reform centre at 12 after an assault. He escaped and joined the Army in 1954, experiencing racial segregation and learning to box while in West Germany. Carter then committed a series of muggings after returning home, spending four years in various state prisons. He began his pro boxing career in 1961. He was fairly short for a middleweight, but his aggression and high punch volume made him effective. Carters life changed forever one summer night in 1966, when two white men and a white woman were gunned down in a New Jersey Bar. Police were searching for what witnesses described as two black men in a white car, and pulled over Carter and Artis a half-hour after the shootings. Though there was no physical evidence linking them to the crime and eyewitnesses at the time of the slayings couldnt identify them as the killers, Carter was convicted along with Artis. Their convictions were overturned in 1975, but both were found guilty a second time in a retrial a year later. After 19 years behind bars, Carter was finally freed in 1985 when a federal judge overturned the second set of convictions, citing a racially biased prosecution. Artis was also exonerated after being earlier paroled in 1981. Carter later moved to Toronto and became the founding executive director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted, which has secured the release of 18 people since 1993. Win Wahrer, a director with the association, remembers Carter as the "voice and the face" of the group. "I think its because of him that we got the credibility that we did get, largely due to him -- he was already a celebrity, people knew who he was," she said. "He suffered along with those who were suffering." Though Carter left the organization in 2005, the phone never stopped ringing with requests for him, Wahrer said. "He was an eloquent speaker, a passionate speaker. I remember the first time I ever heard him I knew I was in the presence of a man that could move mountains just by his presence and his words and his passion for what he believed in," she said. Carter went on to found another advocacy group, Innocence International. "He wanted to bring people together. That was his real purpose in life -- to get people to understand one another and to work together to make changes," said Wahrer. "It was so important for him to make a difference. And I think he did. I think he accomplished what he set out to do." Association lawyer James Lockyer, who has known Carter since they were involved in the wrongful conviction case of Guy Paul Morin, remembered how Carter called him just before sitting down with then-president Bill Clinton for a screening of his 1999 biopic "The Hurricane." The call was to ask for advice on how to bring the U.S. leaders attention to the case of a Canadian woman facing execution in Vietnam. "Even though this was sort of a pinnacle moment of Rubins life -- to sit at the White House with the president and his wife on either side of him watching a film about him -- he wasnt really thinking about himself," said Lockyer. "He was thinking about this poor woman who was sitting on death row in Vietnam that we were trying to save from the firing squad." The film about Carters life starred Denzel Washington, who received an Academy Award nomination for playing the boxer turned prisoner. On Sunday, when told of Carters death, Washington said in a statement: "God bless Rubin Carter and his tireless fight to ensure justice for all." Carters fight continued to the very end. Never letting up even as his body was wracked with cancer, Carter penned an impassioned letter to a New York paper in February calling for the conviction of a man jailed in 1985 to be reviewed -- and reflected on his own mortality in the process. "If I find a heaven after this life, Ill be quite surprised. In my own years on this planet, though, I lived in hell for the first 49 years, and have been in heaven for the past 28 years," he wrote. "To live in a world where truth matters and justice, however late, really happens, that world would be heaven enough for us all." Cheap Air Jordan 4 Retro . Hughes, 30, is a former Major Leaguer with the Baltimore Orioles, having played in 14 games with the Os in 2010. He played with Class AA Binghamton of the Eastern League in the New York Mets system last season. Air Jordan 4 Discount . -- Rory McIlroy birdied his last two holes Thursday for a 7-under 63 to take the lead after one round of the Honda Classic. http://www.airjordan4discount.com/ .A. remained bitter for Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers on the long flight back home to New York. Air Jordan 4 Retro Discount . Pistorius denied the allegation that he said to the close friend of the girlfriend he killed: "How can you sleep at night?" The accusation by Kim Myers provided a bizarre twist during the trial of the world-famous double-amputee Olympian, who is facing 25 years to life in prison if convicted of premeditated murder for shooting dead Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, at his home last year. Cheap Air Jordan 4 .J. - Henrik Lundqvist has done more than set a couple of franchise records for the New York Rangers this week.LOS ANGELES -- Share and share alike. That appears to be the Los Angeles Clippers mantra now that theyll be facing extended time without All-Star point guard Chris Paul. Darren Collison scored 19 of his 21 points in the first half and had seven assists in his second start at the point since Pauls injury, leading the Clippers to a 101-81 rout of the Orlando Magic on Monday night. "You cant replace Chris Paul. Hes a great player in this league. Im just going to play my game and do what I do best," Collison said. "If I go out there and make a mistake, then I make a mistake. But the one thing you can always count on is that Im always going to play hard and try to help my team. When youre aggressive, then you start to see the openings for your teammates and get them the ball." Paul, who separated his right shoulder in Fridays win at Dallas and is expected to be sidelined for at least six weeks, sat behind the Clippers bench in a suit and tie while Collison unselfishly orchestrated things without a hitch against the last-place team in the Southeast Division. "I think the biggest change D.C. made today was that there were three or four times where he could have shot the ball and instead gave it to one of his teammates," coach Doc Rivers said. "When a point guard gives up shots that he could take, its almost like the other guys want to pay it back and get it back to him. Blake did it several times tonight, and Jamal did it a couple of times. So that was good to see." The Clippers enjoyed one of their best defensive efforts of the season, after surrendering 70 first-half points in each of their previous two games against Dallas and San Antonio -- both on the road. "You couldnt really ask for a better game from a lot of guys tonight," Blake Griffin said. "I mean, guys were hitting shots, guys were defending, guys were getting steals, we were running people off the 3-point line -- we did all the things that we wanted to do. And thats always encouraging. Its good to have a game like that after having such a poor first half in San Antonio." Crawford chipped in with 13 points and eight of the teams 30 assists. Griffin -- bogged down by early foul trouble -- had 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists. DeAndre Jordan had 17 rebounds and 14 points. "I thought our ball movement was excellent," Collison said.dddddddddddd "Without a guy like Chris Paul, I think we tend to take the pressure off ourselves when everybodys moving the ball like that. I thought we played phenomenal, as far as the offensive end and how we moved the ball. But I think the biggest reason we had so many good attempts at the opposite end was because of our defence. We really locked down." Reserves Maurice Harkless and Victor Oladipo each scored 22 points for the Magic, who have lost four straight and 11 of their last 15 games. Centre Nikola Vucevic, who had 30 points and 21 rebounds against the Clippers in Orlandos 98-90 home loss on Nov. 6, had just two points and eight boards in 20 minutes after missing the previous two games because of sprained left ankle. He left the game after fouling Griffin near the Clippers basket and taking a hard spill with 8:18 left in the third quarter. "He had a pretty bad fall," coach Jacque Vaughn said. "Hes already been diagnosed with a concussion, so hell enter the concussion protocol and Ill leave it in the hands of the doctors now." Rivers had all of his starters on the bench at the beginning of the fourth quarter with an 85-55 lead, but he had to put them all back in after Jason Maxiells dunk capped a 16-2 run that narrowed the gap to 87-71 with 7:01 remaining. Griffin had two fouls in the first 4:05 of the game and went to the bench after the Clippers opened the game with a 12-3 run. But Jordan extended the margin to 20-3 less than 2 1-2 minutes later with a demonstrative slam dunk, after Crawford set up an alley-oop dunk by Jordan and a 22-footer by Collison. NOTES: Paul, a six-time All-Star, is averaging 18.5 points and 9.8 assists during his three seasons with the Clippers. Since he joined them, they are 11-10 when he doesnt play and 109-55 when he does. ... Vucevic missed five games last March because of a concussion after starting each of Orlandos first 68 contests. ... The Magic made the playoffs in three consecutive seasons when Rivers coached them, but they lost in the first round each time. ... No Orlando player has scored more than 26 points in any of the last 16 games since Afflalos 43-point effort in double overtime in a one-point loss to Philadelphia on Nov. 27. ... Orlando had won 11 of its previous 13 meetings with the Clippers. ' ' '