A Utah judge on Monday granted bail to a 71-year-old man who has spent nearly four decades on death row for a 1985 murder, despite objections from the victim’s relatives. The decision came after prosecutors said newly examined DNA evidence excluded him as a match.
Douglas Stewart Carter was sentenced to death in 1985 after a jury convicted him of killing Eva Olesen, who was the aunt of Provo’s police chief at the time.
The Utah Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year, pointing to misconduct by investigators. Carter has consistently denied killing Olesen and maintains that authorities pressured him into signing a false confession.
Although no physical evidence connected Carter to the crime scene, the jury relied on his confession and testimony from two people who said he had boasted about killing Olesen, a white woman. Both witnesses later withdrew their accounts. Carter is Black.
Judge Derek Pullan said the latest DNA findings further weakened the prosecution’s case, although he determined that a reasonable jury could still conclude Carter was responsible for Olesen’s murder.
As a condition of his release, Pullan ordered Carter to wear a GPS tracking device and prohibited him from contacting members of Olesen’s family.
Defense lawyer Neal Hamilton said Carter will stay in extended-stay housing near the family of his son. The son was adopted as a baby and did not learn about Carter’s conviction until years later. Hamilton said Carter will also require counseling as he adjusts to life after decades behind bars.
“It’s not as simple as, ‘Let’s let him go,’” Hamilton said. “He is being released with 41 years of state-induced trauma, and the impact that will have on him is very real.”
Carter has long said his confession was coerced
Pullan had set a two-month retrial for 2027. But last week, Utah County prosecutors withdrew their notice seeking the death penalty.
Prosecutors told the court that DNA testing completed Sept. 22 ruled out Carter as a possible source of blood found on a doorknob and genetic material recovered from the handle of the knife used to stab Olesen. She was also shot.
Utah County prosecutor Erwin Petilos said Monday that reconsidering Carter’s bail was “necessary and fair” while the state continues reviewing the evidence that remains in the case.
Carter, who was born in Chicago, was living with his mother in Utah when Olesen was killed on Feb. 27, 1985. Court records show that investigators eventually focused on him as a suspect in what they believed was a robbery-related killing.
Carter left Utah by April, believing police suspected him in an unrelated assault, according to court documents. He was arrested in Nashville, Tennessee, that June and signed a confession during questioning by a Provo detective.
Carter later said officers repeatedly threatened him and that he confessed to a crime he did not commit. He was convicted and sentenced to death after a trial in which his defense presented no witnesses. A 1992 retrial brought another death sentence, and Utah courts rejected numerous appeals over the years.
Trial witnesses later alleged police offered cash and gifts
The case took a major turn in 2011, when the two witnesses from Carter’s original trial were located in Mexico. They said police instructed them to lie, gave them money and presents, and warned them not to reveal the payments. The witnesses also alleged that police and prosecutors threatened to deport them and their son unless they implicated Carter.
More than 10 years of legal battles followed. Last year, the Utah Supreme Court ordered a new trial, citing “multiple instances of intentional misconduct” involving police and a prosecutor. DNA testing was conducted afterward, and prosecutors said the results were received last week. They declined Monday to say whether investigators would use the findings to look for other people whose DNA matches the evidence.
Defense points to victim’s husband as a possible suspect
Carter’s attorneys have said witnesses reported seeing a white man run from the scene. They also allege that an investigator withheld evidence that could have directed attention toward other suspects, including Olesen’s husband, Orla Olesen.
They allege that prosecutors were close to filing charges against the husband, but a Provo police lieutenant asked them not to so he could continue investigating. Carter was identified as a suspect soon after, 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 daughter in law of Eva Olesen, said during Monday’s bond hearing that her family had “serious concerns” about Carter’s release. She said he should remain in the Utah County jail, where he was being held pending a new trial.
“By golly we were hoping for a concrete match,” Olesen said of the DNA analysis. “It doesn’t mean he wasn’t there.”
“There are other factors and hopefully the investigation will continue,” she added. “We just want justice for Eva. And if he had any part of it we want that to be known.”
