Homecoming for a Dying Felon : Prison: Suffering advanced cancer, convicted drug smuggler Charles Larsen wins his freedom in a surprise court decision. His daughters, fearing he would die in jail, had fought for his release.

No one found it harder to believe than Charles Larsen. On Friday, he was a free man.

Larsen, a convicted marijuana smuggler who is dying of cancer, was granted early release from prison this week by a federal judge who said keeping him there amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet. It’s like a rubber-band thing. I know I’m out, but I keep feeling like I’m going to be snapped back,” Larsen said from his father’s home in Newport Beach.

The surprise decision by U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall was a victory for Larsen’s two daughters, who fought hard to gain his early release--only to learn Larsen was ineligible for a normal mercy release because of a quirk in the law.

The law that allows compassionate releases for terminally ill prisoners excludes those convicted of serious crimes committed before Nov. 1, 1987. Larsen, 51, of Costa Mesa skippered a smuggling boat months before that cutoff--in June of 1987--and therefore did not qualify. Convicted in 1990, he was an inmate at the U.S. Penitentiary in Lompoc.

In recent weeks, Larsen pleaded that his remaining in prison would violate his constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment. The judge agreed and signed the release order Wednesday.

Larsen got word Thursday he was going home. His daughters, who had feared he would die in prison, picked him up. “My knees were wobbling,” he said. By night, he was home.

Daughter Holly Doan said she still does not understand how the judge managed to untie a seemingly impossible legal knot.

“We don’t care. He’s home. Now we have a little more control over the situation,” said Doan, a Newport Beach artist.

Larsen’s illness was diagnosed in August as cancer of the pancreas and liver. The prison doctor said the cancer, Larsen’s second outbreak in a year, was advanced. There was no hope for treatment.

But Doan and her sister, Michelle Olson, have not lost hope. They plan to treat their father’s condition with herbal remedies.

“As soon as I got in the car, the girls had me chewing on the roots. I was eating them before the car was rolling,” Larsen said.

Olson was afraid that Larsen would never see his first grandchild. Olson’s baby is due later this month. Larsen’s son, Josh, arrived home from England earlier in the week.

Larsen had about six months left on his sentence but was set to be released to a halfway house in Orange County on Sept. 25. But he feared the halfway house might reject him because of his condition, and his daughters said it was the wrong environment for someone with advanced cancer.

Larsen’s lawyer said the judge had signaled her intent to grant a mercy release until it was learned he was ineligible. In the end, Marshall was swayed by Larsen’s appeal on constitutional grounds and, “in furtherance of the compassionate and humane administration of justice,” agreed to free him.

Marshall declined to comment, but cited in a three-page ruling “extraordinary and compelling reasons” for the unusual release.

“I’m delighted,” said Ronald Muntean, Larsen’s attorney. “She did the right thing.”

Larsen, who lost 90 pounds from his bouts with cancer, was ebullient Friday--almost to the point of forgetting the constant pain in his gut and the doctor’s gloomy outlook.

“It’s a great feeling being here with my kids and my dad,” he said. “I feel the change already.”