'Hurricane' Carter's Judge, H. Lee Sarokin, Passes Away at 94
H. Lee Sarokin, a federal judge who famously freed boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter and presided over a landmark liability case against tobacco companies, has died at the age of 94. Sarokin was nominated to a federal judgeship by former President Jimmy Carter and served on the district court in New Jersey from 1979 to 1994 and the appeals court from 1994 to 1996. He issued some 2,500 rulings over his career, among them deciding that a homeless man couldn’t be barred from a public library because of his smell. In retirement, Sarokin was a regular contributor to HuffPost and wrote a dozen plays with themes of social justice and civil rights that were staged by the regional North Coast Repertory Theater.
