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. Authentic NHL Jerseys . 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." NHL Jerseys .Jeff Green, playing in his second preseason game after missing the first four because of a calf strain, had 18 points. The Celtics (3-3) shot 47.2 per cent from the floor and made 15 of 37 3-point attempts. Cheap NHL Jerseys .com) - New England Patriots starting center Bryan Stork will not play in Sundays AFC Championship against Indianapolis due to a knee injury the rookie sustained last week.GRENOBLE, France -- Doctors offered a grim assessment of Michael Schumachers head injuries Monday, providing no prognosis for the Formula One driving great after his skiing accident in the French Alps. Schumacher has been placed in a medically induced coma to relieve pressure on his brain, which suffered bruising and bleeding when the retired seven-time world champion fell and struck a rock Sunday while skiing during a family vacation. "We cannot predict the future for Michael Schumacher," Dr. Jean-Francois Payen, the doctor in charge of Grenoble University Hospitals intensive care unit, said at a news conference. "He is in a critical state in terms of cerebral resuscitation," said Payen, the chief anesthesiologist treating the 44-year-old German driver. "We are working hour by hour." Schumachers wife, Corinna, daughter Gina Maria and son Mick were at his bedside. "The family is not doing very well, obviously. They are shocked," his manager, Sabine Kehm, told reporters. Schumacher earned universal admiration for his uncommon driving talent, which led to a record 91 race wins. His single-minded dedication to victory sometimes meant he was denied the same affection during his career that he received Monday. Schumacher "gave the image of someone indestructible, powerful," Frances four-time F1 champion Alain Prost said on iTele TV channel. "Its a banal accident compared to what hes done in the past. Its just a dumb thing that ended badly." Schumacher and his 14-year-old son were skiing Sunday morning in the French Alpine resort of Meribel, where the family has a chalet. He fell and hit the right side of his head on a rock. By wearing a helmet, Schumacher had given himself a chance of survival, Payen said, though the protection was not enough to prevent serious injury. Gerard Saillant, a trauma surgeon who operated on Schumacher when he broke his leg in a 1999 race crash, was at the hospital as a visitor. He told reporters that Schumachers age and fitness should work in his favour. Schumacher, who turns 45 on Friday, retired from the track for the second time only last year, after a three-season comeback. Still, the hospitals neurology team, which is recognized as among the best in France, was cautious about Schumachers prospects. Doctors lowered his body temperature to between 34 and 35 degrees Celsius (93.2 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit) as part of the coma, which essentially rests the brain, slowing its metabolism to help reduce inflammation after an injury. The hospital, in a city that is the gateway to the French Alps, sees a large number of skiing accidents every year. Schumacher has been seriously hurt before. In addition to the broken leg in a crash at the 1999 British Grand Prix, he also suffered neck and spine injuries after a motorcycle accident in 2009 in Spain. An expert skier, Schumacher fell in a section of trails that slice down tthrough a vast and, in parts, very steep snowfield. Wholesale NHL Jerseys. Although challenging, the snowfield is not extreme skiing. The runs are broad and neatly tended, and the ungroomed area in between -- where the resort said Schumacher was found -- is free of trees. "He was in the deep snow. But it was not an off-piste track," Kehm said, suggesting Schumacher had not taken undue risks. "They were skiing on pistes, but in the moment that it (the accident) happened, it was not on the piste." Meribel resort officials said Schumacher was conscious when first responders arrived, although agitated and in shock. After the fall, Payen said Monday, Schumacher was not in a "normal state of consciousness." He did not respond to questions, and his limbs appeared to move involuntarily, the doctor said. He was airlifted to a local hospital and then later brought to Grenoble. Doctors said that stopover was typical and did not affect his condition. The French prosecutor in Albertville has opened an investigation into the accident, according to the Mountain Gendarmerie in Bourg-Saint-Maurice. The goal is to determine the circumstances and cause of the accident. Formula One drivers and fans rushed to wish Schumacher a quick recovery. "Like millions of Germans, the chancellor and members of the government were extremely dismayed when they heard about Michael Schumachers serious skiing accident," German Chancellor Angela Merkels spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said in Berlin. Sebastian Vettel, the Formula One racer for whom Schumacher was a boyhood idol, told German news agency dpa: "I am shocked and hope that he will get better as soon as possible." Ferrari, which Schumacher raced for, also expressed its concern. Company President Luca di Montezemolo and race team leader Stefano Domenicali were in contact with the family, the company said in a statement. Former Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa, who himself recovered from life-threatening head injuries at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2009, wrote on Instagram: "I am praying for you my brother!! I hope you have a quick recovery!! God bless you, Michael." British former F1 champion Jenson Button posted that "Michael more than anyone has the strength to pull through this." Some fans gathered outside the hospital Monday. Nuravil Raimbekov, a student from Kyrgyzstan who is studying in Grenoble, said Schumacher has been an inspiration to him. "Im worried, of course ... But I still hope, and I will pray for him," he said. During his career, Schumacher set an array of Formula One records. After initial success with the Benetton team, winning his first two championships in 1994 and 1995, Schumacher moved to Ferrari. There, he helped turn the storied Italian team into the sports dominant force. After initially retiring in 2006, he made a comeback in 2010 and raced for three years with Mercedes. ' ' '