Arthur Carmona didn't live long enough to get what he wanted the most: public vindication over convictions for two armed robberies that put him behind bars for 2 1/2 years before the Orange County district attorney dropped the charges against him.
But Carmona still has a shot at immortality: His name is on a proposed state Assembly bill that's made it through a committee on its way through the legislative mill.
Regular readers of this column know I have a stake in the Carmona story: After his conviction in October 1998, I wrote a string of columns starting several months later that urged a new trial for him. No physical evidence linked Carmona to the robberies in Costa Mesa and Irvine, and I came to mistrust the eyewitness identifications that led to his conviction and 12-year prison sentence.
In August 2000, after a judge granted Carmona a hearing to determine whether he should get a new trial, the district attorney pulled the plug on the case and he was freed. At the time, Carmona had been in custody since his arrest in February 1998, five days after his 16th birthday.
Two months ago, Carmona, 26, died after a pickup truck struck him on a street inside a mobile home park. Police called the death a homicide and said it apparently stemmed from a dispute at an early-morning party. No arrests have been made.
In recent years, Carmona had advocated for the wrongfully convicted. He had spoken to civic groups and a law-school class, as well as at state legislative hearings and public seminars.
Knowing he wasn't a "natural" as a public speaker, I always found it compelling that he'd accepted that role. It was obvious to me that, had he actually duped the system in getting an early prison release, he or anyone else would have thanked their lucky stars and dropped from sight.
But he didn't, and that leads us to Assemblyman Jose Solorio's bill that would put into law many of the things Carmona lobbied for. Solorio, (D-Santa Ana), chairs the Public Safety Committee and met Carmona last year.
He remembers him as a "humble young man, a little shy, because Sacramento can be a little intimidating." One of Solorio's interests has been what happens to inmates both while they're in prison and after their release. Aware of the adjustment problems of people who did commit the crimes, Solorio reasoned that wrongfully convicted people might have the same issues after their release.
