Another Voice Speaking Out for Carmona

* Re “Next Case for D.A.: Free Arthur Carmona,” (Jan. 30):

Dana Parsons wrote a compelling, believable trail of events and circumstances in a series of columns concerning Arthur Carmona last year.

So compelling that, for the first time, I felt it necessary to contribute money to a defense fund and to go to court in support of a stranger.

In my naivete, I thought there would be some honest soul-searching displayed for a rather slow boy not yet 16 when arrested. Instead, it felt like a rote recital of the former charges without regard to admitting the serious second thoughts of two former jurors and a key witness against him.

I was dismayed to watch this slight young boy led off to a prison sentence with all the questions still sitting on the table.

He is not a celebrity, he has no high-powered attorneys with clout or prominent backers who are shouting from the rooftops that he is not guilty. The only public voice for him seems to be Dana Parsons. Let me add my small voice as one of the public.

To Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas and the Orange County district attorney’s office: Free Arthur Carmona before he disappears into the core system of hardened criminals; do the right thing and don’t compound the tragedy he and his family have already endured.

DIXIE MITCHELL

Irvine