In 1967, Carter and Artis were convicted by an all-white jury of murdering three white men in a Paterson, New Jersey, tavern. At the time of his arrest, Carter was a leading contender for the world middleweight boxing title. Both he and Artis were sentenced to life imprisonment and have already served more than eight years.

Last year the prosecution's two key witnesses, Alfred Bello and Arthur Bradley, confessed to newsmen that they had lied during the trial because of pressure from the prosecutor and police. Nonetheless, Judge Samuel Larner, who presided over the original trial, rejected an appeal by Carter and Artis for a retrial, ruling that the two recantations lacked "the ring of truth."

Judge Larner's widely publicized decision aroused growing public outage against the frame-up, forcing Democratic Governor Byrne, at the end of September, to ask Black State Assemblyman Eldridge Hawkins to come up with a recommendation on whether a retrial or pardon should be granted.

Organizers of the October 17 march accused the governor of stalling. Marchers carried picket signs reading, "Not one more day, not one more minute," "Governor Byrne, the whole world is watching," and "They pardoned Nixon, and he was guilty."

The demonstration received extensive media coverage and was reported by all three network news programs that night.  
 
October 30, 1950
FLINT, Oct. 16--A seven-man Chevrolet union trial committee flatly rejected charges of subversiveness and conduct unbecoming a union member brought against Theodore Karpel by 116 workers in Chevrolet UAW Local 659. The trial committee accused the company of participation in this action to expel a union member on trumped-up charges, and vigorously denounced the entire witch-hunt

In a month-long investigation that was open to all local union members, the evidence demonstrated that a few misguided and bigoted workers had been duped by forces outside of the union to set in motion a purge of all workers with radical beliefs.

Karpel had been accused of violating shop rules, getting into fist fights, eviction from his apartment, exhibiting a "subversive" film (Native Land) in the YMCA, distributing "subversive" literature to high school students, etc. His accusers did not attempt to link him with any political party.

In spite of careful investigation the committee was unable to find a single person who would admit authorship of the charges. Many had never read the charges before signing. Many did not know what they were putting their signatures to when questioned by the committee. Even before the trial committee started to investigate the issue, 96 workers withdrew their names from the petition when they became aware of its significance.