Douglas Stewart Carter, a 71-year-old American man who spent 41 years on death row in Utah, was released on bail following DNA test results that excluded him from the crime scene evidence, according to his defense attorney Neal Hamilton and court documents. Carter was originally convicted in 1985 for the robbery and fatal stabbing and shooting of Eva Olesen at her home in Provo, Utah.
Release on Bail Following New DNA Analysis
A Utah judge ordered Carter released on bail on Monday, requiring him to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet while awaiting a new trial, according to reporting by Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press. Prosecutors disclosed this month that newly analyzed DNA testing excluded Carter as a match for blood discovered on a door handle and genetic material retrieved from a knife handle at the victim’s residence. Neal Hamilton, Carter’s defense lawyer, stated in a release provided to AFP that the state had stolen 41 years of his client’s life to subject him to the horrors of death row.
Case History and Alleged Police Misconduct
Carter was convicted in 1985 and sentenced to death, maintaining his innocence and asserting that his signed confession was coerced by law enforcement after he fled Utah to Nashville, Tennessee, believing he was a suspect in an unrelated matter. The Utah Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year, citing professional misconduct by investigators during the original probe. Defense attorneys pointed to evidence indicating that witnesses who initially implicated Carter later admitted in 2011 that police had threatened them with deportation, given them gifts and money, and ordered them to fabricate their courtroom testimony.
According to court filings cited by news agencies, defense teams also argued that investigators ignored witness reports of a white man fleeing the crime scene and allegedly concealed evidence pointing toward the victim’s husband, Orla Olesen, who died in 2009. The victim, Eva Olesen, was the aunt of a local police chief. The state’s case had relied heavily on Carter’s disputed confession and the testimony of the two witnesses who later recanted.
Family Reaction and Legal Arguments
The decision to grant bail proceeded despite explicit objections from the victim’s family. Theresa Olesen, the stepdaughter of Eva Olesen, spoke at the bail hearing on Monday, telling the court that her family remained deeply concerned regarding Carter’s release and had hoped for a formal DNA match connecting him to the scene, noting that the absence of a match did not definitively place him elsewhere. Conversely, Neal Hamilton argued for the total dismissal of the charges, noting to the Associated Press that had the state’s timeline held decades ago, Carter would likely have been executed prior to the uncovering of police wrongdoing.
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