Douglas Carter released on bail after decades on Utah’s death row after DNA tests showed no matches to him
A Utah judge ordered a 71-year-old man released on bail after spending decades on death row for a 1985 murder, despite objections from the victim’s family, after prosecutors said newly analyzed DNA evidence did not match him.
Douglas Stewart Carter was sentenced to death that same year after a jury found him guilty of the murder of Eva Olesen, aunt of Provo’s police chief at the time.
The state Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year, citing misconduct by investigators. Carter has maintained his innocence and claims a signed confession was obtained under duress.
No physical evidence linked him to the crime scene, but the jury convicted Carter, a black man, based on the confession and two witnesses who said he bragged about killing Olesen, who was white.
Defense attorney Neal Hamilton said Carter would be placed in extended-stay housing near the family of his son, who was adopted by another family as a baby and did not learn of the conviction until years later. Carter will also need therapy to deal with his prolonged incarceration, Hamilton said.
“It’s not as simple as saying, ‘Let’s let him go,’” Hamilton said. “He is being released after 41 years of state-induced trauma and the effect this will have on him is very real.”
Judge Derek Pullan had scheduled a two-month retrial in 2027, but last week Utah County prosecutors withdrew a notice saying they intended to seek the death penalty.
Prosecutors said DNA analysis results received Sept. 22 exclude Carter as a possible match to blood found on a doorknob and genetic material recovered from the handle of a knife used to stab Olesen, who was also shot.
Utah County Prosecutor Erwin Petilos told the judge Monday that Carter’s bail reassessment was “necessary and just” as the state continues to review remaining evidence in the case.
Carter, a Chicago native, was living with his mother in Utah at the time of Olesen’s murder on Feb. 27, 1985. Court documents say the investigation ultimately focused on Carter, who was suspected of killing Olesen during a robbery.
In April of that year, Carter fled Utah, believing he was a suspect in an unrelated assault case, according to court documents. He was apprehended in June in Nashville, Tennessee, where Carter signed a confession while being questioned by a Provo detective.
Carter later said he made a false confession after being repeatedly threatened by police. He was convicted and sentenced to death after a trial in which the defense called no witnesses. He was sentenced to death again after a retrial in 1992, and Utah courts rejected many of Carter’s appeals in the following years.
Key witnesses say police gave them money and gifts
A turning point came in 2011, when the two witnesses from his original trial were found in Mexico. They said they were asked to lie in court and given money and gifts by police, who told them not to disclose the payments. They also said police and prosecutors threatened them and their son with deportation if they did not implicate Carter.
More than a decade of legal wrangling followed before the Utah Supreme Court last year ordered a new trial, citing “multiple instances of intentional misconduct” by police and a prosecutor. A DNA analysis of the evidence was conducted in response to that order, and prosecutors said the results came in last week. They declined Monday to say whether they were using the DNA evidence to search for other suspects whose DNA matched.
Victim’s husband was a potential suspect
Carter’s defense attorneys said witnesses saw a white man fleeing the crime scene and that an investigator removed evidence pointing to other suspects, including the victim’s husband, Orla Olesen.
They say prosecutors were about to file charges against the husband, but a Provo police lieutenant asked them not to so they could continue the investigation. Carter was identified as a suspect a short time later, according to court documents.
Orla Olesen, a painting contractor who died in 2009, told police he found his wife dead in their home, partially undressed and with her hands tied behind her back.
Theresa Olesen, a stepdaughter of Eva Olesen, said during Monday’s bond hearing that her family had “serious concerns” about Carter’s release. She said he is expected to remain in the Utah County Jail, where he was being held pending a retrial.
“Geez, we were hoping for a concrete match,” Olesen said of the DNA analysis. “That doesn’t mean he wasn’t there.”
“There are other factors and I hope the investigation continues,” she added. “We just want justice for Eva. And if he was involved in it, we want that to be known.”
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