Arthur Carmona

On the big screen these days, "The Hurricane" tells the story of former boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter's 20 years in prison on trumped-up murder charges. On Friday, Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas called for the release of a 39-year-old man who'd spent 18 years in prison for a murder authorities now doubt he committed. Ironically, Rackauckas tried the case as a deputy district attorney in 1982 and asked for the death penalty.

A 21-year-old Anaheim man has been arrested in connection with the killing of Arthur Carmona, a Santa Ana man who had made headlines when he was freed from prison after being wrongfully convicted. After months of investigation, Santa Ana homicide detectives arrested Felix Abreu, 21, Thursday on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run driving, both felonies. Carmona, 26, was struck and killed as he ran from a party that had turned violent, authorities said.

A 21-year-old Anaheim man has been arrested in connection with the killing of Arthur Carmona, a Santa Ana man who had made headlines when he was freed from prison after being wrongfully convicted. After months of investigation, Santa Ana homicide detectives arrested Felix Abreu, 21, Thursday on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run driving, both felonies. Carmona, 26, was struck and killed as he ran from a party that had turned violent, authorities said.

Nobody wants to get bad news at 11 o'clock at night, but that's when Ronnie Carmona got the e-mail message last weekend. The legislative bill named for her dead son -- the bill she thought would honor him and bolster her fractured psyche -- had been vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger. I know Ronnie well, and for much of the time that we talked Monday, I was caught between being a friend and being a reporter taking notes.

His first night home after 2 1/2 years in prison, Arthur Carmona slept for only two hours. "I was afraid if I went to sleep, when I woke up, I'd be back in there," he said. Freed after the district attorney did not oppose the dismissal of his robbery conviction, Carmona said he didn't want to go to Disneyland or the movies or skateboarding: "I just want to be with my family."

Thanks for the important and compelling series of columns by Dana Parsons on the trial of Arthur Carmona. The tactics used by the police and the prosecutors would have some validity if Carmona is guilty. If innocent, their tactics and those who used them should be held accountable. Perhaps the most important ingredient in the criminal justice system is the wisdom and integrity of those involved. DOUGLAS WATSON Costa Mesa

Re "Carmona Sues Over Robbery Conviction," (Dec. 12): Arthur Carmona basically was told, "OK, you didn't commit the crimes, but don't you ever get in trouble, and by the way, sign this release of our liability if you want to go home." These were absolutely reprehensible words and demands on the part of the Costa Mesa and Irvine police departments. If ever anyone was justified in bringing suit and deserves compensation for the loss of irreplaceable years in his young life, it is Carmona and his family.

Judge Everett W. Dickey on Monday blasted as "totally inappropriate" Irvine City Councilman Larry Agran's letter imploring him to overturn the conviction of Arthur Carmona. Dickey said he received the letter late last week and will refer the matter to the State Bar Assn. of California. He said the bar association's ethical guidelines prohibit an attorney from writing to a court, trying to influence a case in which he or she isn't directly involved.

I made a private promise not to relay the following anecdote about Arthur Carmona unless and until the young man's robbery conviction was overturned and that day, thankfully, has come. The source of the anecdote was Ken Wilson, a Fullerton pastor who knows all too well Carmona's story. The anecdote, as Wilson relayed it to me in 1999, was that during one of his many sessions with Carmona before his sentencing last year, he told the teenager he had some good news.

Arthur Carmona, the Santa Ana teenager who spent more than two years in jail before his robbery conviction was dismissed, has filed suit against his original defense attorney, saying the lawyer put on "virtually no defense" in his 1998 trial. The suit, against attorney Kenneth Reed, was filed in Superior Court in Santa Ana on July 3, after a judge dismissed a similar suit from federal court saying it lacked jurisdiction.

A Santa Ana man who was freed from prison after more than a dozen Los Angeles Times columns raised doubts about the evidence was killed early Sunday after a fight erupted at a party and an unknown assailant ran him down with a car, police said. Arthur Paul Carmona, 26, served more than two years in custody after being convicted of two armed robberies on the basis of eyewitness testimony. A key witness later recanted her identification of him, and two jurors said they had doubts about his guilt.

Arthur Carmona, the Santa Ana teenager who spent more than two years in jail before his robbery conviction was dismissed, has filed suit against his original defense attorney, saying the lawyer put on "virtually no defense" in his 1998 trial. The suit, against attorney Kenneth Reed, was filed in Superior Court in Santa Ana on July 3, after a judge dismissed a similar suit from federal court saying it lacked jurisdiction.

Re "Carmona Sues Over Robbery Conviction," (Dec. 12): Arthur Carmona basically was told, "OK, you didn't commit the crimes, but don't you ever get in trouble, and by the way, sign this release of our liability if you want to go home." These were absolutely reprehensible words and demands on the part of the Costa Mesa and Irvine police departments. If ever anyone was justified in bringing suit and deserves compensation for the loss of irreplaceable years in his young life, it is Carmona and his family.

I have followed the case of Arthur Carmona and particularly The Times' columns of Dana Parsons for quite some time. The Irvine Police Department picked out Carmona as the criminal and set him up to be identified by placing a baseball cap that was not his on his head. There was absolutely no physical evidence that he committed this crime. After increasing awareness of the police methods used in obtaining the conviction, growing doubts among the jurors and a public outcry for a new trial, Dist.

The erasure of the armed robbery conviction for Arthur Carmona after he spent more than two years in prison stands as proclamation of his innocence, despite the intemperate remarks of Orange County's district attorney. The case also points up the problems with eyewitness testimony, problems that have been documented in numerous academic studies but which are unknown or glossed over by most jurors. There are fewer more powerful nails in the coffin than a witness' statement that "He's the one."

Regarding "Judge Orders Carmona Set Free," Aug. 22: Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas helps put an innocent young man in prison and, after a judge frees the wrongly convicted based on the true facts of the case, has the impudence to sermonize and chastise young Carmona by saying, "You are getting a second chance. . . . Do not--I repeat, not--commit any crimes!" For your information, Mr. Rackauckas, Arthur Carmona would not need your generous second chance if it wasn't for the questionable and shoddy work of many, including the Irvine Police Department and your office.

Attorneys for a teenager sentenced to 12 years in prison in a controversial robbery case filed an appeal Monday, arguing that the boy's first lawyer failed to interview several witnesses who could have provided solid alibis. Arthur Carmona, 17, is being held at a California Youth Authority facility in Ione, near Sacramento. He is expected to be transferred to an adult prison within weeks of when he turns 18.

Attacking an arrest by the Police Department he oversees, Irvine City Councilman Larry Agran has urged a judge to overturn the controversial robbery conviction of Arthur Carmona. In a letter to Judge Everett W. Dickey, the councilman outlined evidence that he said shows Irvine police wrongfully arrested Carmona for a 1998 robbery. Dickey has scheduled a hearing for today to determine whether Carmona should be granted a new trial.

The first time Deborah Muns heard the name Arthur Carmona was the day after his arrest for armed robbery on Feb. 12, 1998. Her sister was a church leader at Seeker's Chapel in Fullerton, which had sponsored a weekend retreat a few days before Carmona's arrest. Carmona went on the retreat. "Arthur didn't do it," Muns' sister told her. Muns, then clerking for a Pasadena appellate judge, said she remembers thinking, "That's usually what they all say. And usually they all did it."