A Utah judge ordered a 71-year-old man to be released on bail after he spent decades on death row for a 1985 killing, despite objections from the victim’s family, after prosecutors said newly analyzed DNA evidence did not match him.

A Utah judge has ordered a 71-year-old man to be released on bail after he spent decades on death row for a 1985 killing, 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 murdering Eva Olesen, an aunt of the Provo 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 says a signed confession was coerced.

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 will be placed in an extended stay accommodation near the family of his son, who was adopted by another family as an infant and didn’t learn about the conviction until years later. Carter also will need therapy to deal with his extended incarceration, Hamilton said.

“It’s not just as simple as, ‘Let’s let him go,’” Hamilton said. “He’s being released with 41 years of state-induced trauma and the effect it will have on him is very real.”