Nationwide — Douglas Stewart Carter, a 71-year-old African American man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and spent about four decades on Utah’s death row, has been ordered released on bail after new DNA testing excluded him as a match to genetic evidence from the crime scene. He has always maintained his innocence in the 1985 killing of Eva Olesen, and a judge has now allowed him to leave prison while prosecutors continue reviewing the case.
Carter was convicted of killing Olesen, who was the aunt of the Provo police chief at the time, during a robbery at her home on February 27, 1985. Investigators eventually focused on Carter, but prosecutors had no physical evidence directly connecting him to the killing. His conviction instead relied on a confession he later said was coerced and testimony from two witnesses who claimed he had talked about killing Olesen. A jury sentenced him to death that year, and he received another death sentence after a 1992 retrial.
He was arrested in Nashville, Tennessee, in June 1985 after leaving Utah. Court records say he had fled because he believed police were looking for him over an unrelated assault case. While being questioned by a Provo detective, he signed a confession. Carter later said officers repeatedly threatened him and pressured him into admitting to a crime he did not commit.
Years later, the testimony that helped convict Carter also came under scrutiny. In 2011, attorneys located the two witnesses from his original trial in Mexico. Both said they had lied in court and accused police of giving them money and gifts in exchange for implicating Carter. They also said investigators threatened them and one witness’s son with deportation if they refused to cooperate. Carter’s defense team also argued that investigators had failed to properly pursue other suspects. They pointed to reports that witnesses saw a White man leaving the home and raised questions about evidence involving Olesen’s husband, Orla Olesen.
After years of appeals and legal challenges, the Utah Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year. According to CNN, the court cited multiple instances of intentional misconduct by police and a prosecutor. That decision led to additional testing of evidence from the crime scene, including material connected to the weapon used against Olesen.
Prosecutors received the latest DNA results on September 22 and told the court that Carter was excluded as a possible match to blood found on a doorknob and genetic material recovered from the handle of the knife used to stab Olesen. She had also been shot. Utah County prosecutors have since withdrawn their notice seeking the death penalty in the planned retrial, which Judge Derek Pullan had scheduled for 2027. Prosecutor Erwin Petilos said reconsidering Carter’s bail was necessary while the state reviews the remaining evidence. His attorney, Neal Hamilton, said Carter will live in extended-stay housing near his son’s family and will need therapy after decades in custody. During the hearing, Theresa Olesen said the victim’s family opposed his release but hoped investigators would continue examining the case and determine who was responsible for Eva Olesen’s death.