to abolish the death penalty.

Carter, a Canadian citizen after spending nearly 20 years in a New Jersey prison after his conviction for three murders, spoke

before more than 700 people during a panel discussion at the National Conference on Wrongful Convictions and the Death

Penalty.

``I am not pleased to be here under these circumstances. If it hadn't been for a quaint Latin phrase, habeas corpus, I would

have been someplace else -- due to a prior commitment,'' Carter said to laughter, referring to the legal principal that allowed

him to be freed.

In 1985, the former middleweight boxer convicted twice of a triple murder in 1966, was released after 19 years from Rahway

State Prison.

U.S. District Court Judge H. Lee Sarokin ruled Carter and his co-defendant were denied their civil rights by prosecutors

during trials in 1967 and 1976. The judge said the conviction was tainted by racial bias and the withholding of information

from the defense.

Carter gained international fame with rocker Bob Dylan's song ``Hurricane,'' which helped the former boxer win his freedom.

``This conference is a wakeup call for everybody,'' said Carter, who now lives in Toronto, where he is a writer, teacher and

head of the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted.

His hair thinning and wearing eyeglasses, Carter urged the crowd in Northwestern University's law school auditorium to fight

recent efforts to erode the appeal process for those convicted. More than 30 men and women in the audience were former

inmates who had been spared from death row.

``Wrongs can be righted. Our presence here today is living proof of that,'' Carter said.

``There is a rush to death in our society, a killing climate of fear,'' Carter said. ``Fear feeds prejudice and inflames passion.

``When you fear someone, anything is possible from slavery to anti-Semitism to racism to the McCarthy witchhunts,'' said

Carter. ``Blinded by our fear of crime, we focus only on the symptoms.''

He said the causes of crime -- poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, drugs and racism -- are ignored.

Also on the panel was Mike Farrell, an actor who starred in the popular TV show ``M.A.S.H.'' and is now an anti-death

penalty activist.

Referring to those inmates-turned-advocates in the audience, Farrell said ``these people stood up and said `I'm going top see

this doesn't happen to anybody else.'''

The conference continues through Sunday.