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A Utah man who has spent decades on death row after he was convicted of killing a police chief’s aunt has been released after prosecutors said newly analyzed DNA evidence excluded him as the source of DNA recovered from key pieces of evidence in the case.
Douglas Stewart Carter, 71, was let out on bail late Monday over objections from the victim’s family. He must wear a GPS monitor while he awaits a new trial in the killing of Eva Olesen, who was found tied up, stabbed and shot inside her Provo home on Feb. 27, 1985, during what investigators suspected was a robbery.
A judge ordered him not to have any contact with Olesen’s family.
The Utah Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year, pointing to misconduct by investigators.
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Carter has maintained his innocence and argues that he was coerced into a signed confession.
No physical evidence linked Carter to the crime scene, but the jury convicted him based on the confession and the testimony of two witnesses who claimed he bragged about killing Olesen, although those witnesses later recanted.
A DNA analysis received on Sept. 22 excluded 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.
Judge Derek Pullan said those findings further undermined the case against Carter, but noted that a jury could still say that he killed Olesen.
“This is going to be a lot for him,” Carter’s son, Tyler Anger, said on Monday as he waited for his father after his release was ordered.
Carter will be placed in an extended stay hotel located near Anger, who was adopted by another family as an infant and did not learn about his father’s conviction until years later, according to Carter’s attorney, Neal Hamilton.
Carter will need therapy to deal with his extended incarceration, Hamilton said.
“If the state of Utah had their way, he would have been executed 15, 20 years ago before we discovered the misconduct,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton also urged prosecutors to seek dismissal of an aggravated murder charge still pending against Carter.
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A two-month retrial was planned next year, but county prosecutors withdrew a notice last week that they wanted to pursue the death penalty.
Utah County prosecutor Erwin Petilos told the judge on Monday that reassessing Carter’s bail was “necessary and fair” as the state continues to examine the remaining evidence in the case.
Carter was living with his mother in Utah when Olesen was killed.
By April of 1985, Carter had fled Utah, believing he was a suspect in an unrelated assault case, court documents show. He was detained two months later in Nashville, where he signed a confession while under interrogation by a Provo detective.
Carter said later that his confession was coerced, saying he falsely admitted to the crime after police repeatedly threatened him.
He was convicted and sentenced to death after a trial in which the defense called no witnesses to testify. Carter was sentenced to death again after a 1992 retrial, and courts in Utah later denied multiple appeals from Carter’s legal team.
In 2011, the two witnesses from Carter’s original trial were tracked down in Mexico, admitting they had been told to lie in court and had received cash and gifts from police in exchange for their testimonies. They said police told them not to disclose the payments and that police and prosecutors threatened them and their son with deportation if they did not implicate Carter in the killing.
More than a decade of legal fights ensued before the Utah Supreme Court stepped in last year and 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 arrived last week, which excluded Carter from the crime.
Prosecutors declined to say whether they will use the DNA evidence to search for other suspects with matching DNA.
Attorneys for Carter, who is Black, have said witnesses saw a White man fleeing the crime scene and that an investigator suppressed evidence that could implicate other suspects, including the victim’s husband, Orla Olesen.
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Prosecutors were close to filing charges against the husband, but a Provo police lieutenant urged them not to so he could continue investigating, according to the defense attorneys. Carter was then identified as a suspect, according to court documents.
Orla Olesen, 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 the bond hearing on Monday that her family had “serious concerns” about Carter’s release.
“By golly we were hoping for a concrete match,” Olesen said of the DNA analysis. “It doesn’t mean he wasn’t there.”
“We just want justice for Eva. And if he had any part of it we want that to be known,” she added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
