American Rhetoric: Movie Speech

"The Hurricane" (1999)

Rubin "Hurricane" Carter: Address to Judge Sarokin, Federal District Court of New Jersey

Audio mp3 delivered by Denzel Washington

Bedlock: Your Honor, my client, Mr. Carter, wishes to address the Court.

Judge Sarokin: Request granted.

Carter: Thank you, Your Honor. I was a prize fighter. My job was to take all the hatred and skill that I could muster and send a man to his destruction -- and I did that. But Rubin Hurricane Carter is no murderer.

20 years I've spent locked up in a cage, considered a danger to society, not treated like a human being, not treated like a person -- counted 15 times a day. I served my time in a house of justice, and yet there's no justice for me.

So, I ask you to consider the evidence. Don't turn away from the truth. Don't turn away from your conscience. Please, don't ignore the law. No, embrace that higher principle for which the law was meant to serve: justice -- that's all I ask, Your Honor -- justice.

Judge Sarokin: This Court is in recess.

Proceed to Judge Sarokin's Ruling