Man who has spent decades on death row in Utah released after DNA evidence

A man who has spent decades on death row in Utah is being released after prosecutors said newly analysed DNA evidence did not match him.

A judge has ordered that Douglas Stewart Carter, who was found guilty of the 1985 killing of Eva Olesen, be released on bail while he awaits a new trial.

Mrs Olesen was stabbed in the back, in the abdomen and in the neck and then shot in the back of her head at her home in Provo, Utah, about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Carter's release comes after a DNA analysis earlier this month ruled out Carter, 71, as a possible match to blood found on a doorknob and genetic material recovered from the handle of the knife used in the murder.

No physical evidence linked Carter to the crime scene, but a jury convicted Carter based on a confession and the testimony of two witnesses who said he bragged about killing Ms Olesen - a police chief's aunt.

The two witnesses later change their accouts of what happened.

Last year, the state Supreme Court ordered a new trial, citing "multiple instances of intentional misconduct" by investigators, while Carter, who is required to wear a GPS monitor while on bail, has maintained his innocence and says his signed confession was coerced.

Release 'going to be a lot'

Judge Derek Pullan said the new DNA evidence further undermined the case against Carter, but that a reasonable jury could still conclude that he killed Ms Olesen.

Defence attorney Neal Hamilton said Carter will be placed in accommodation near the family of his son, Tyler Anger, who was adopted by another family as an infant and didn't learn about the conviction until years later.

Carter will need therapy to deal with his extended incarceration, Mr Hamilton said.

He added: "If the state of Utah had their way, he would have been executed 15, 20 years ago before we discovered the misconduct."

Mr Anger said that Carter's release "is going to be a lot for him", adding: "I want Doug to put his feet on the grass. He hasn't done that in 40 years."

Victim's family has 'serious concerns'

The ruling comes despite objections from the victim's family, with Theresa Olesen, Ms Olesen's daughter-in-law, saying the family had "serious concerns" about Carter's release.

"We were hoping for a concrete match," she 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."

Meanwhile, Utah County prosecutor Erwin Petilos told the judge that reassessing Carter's bail was "necessary and fair" as the state continues to look at the remaining evidence in the case.

A decade of legal wrangling

Carter, originally from Chicago, was living with his mother in Utah when Ms Olesen was killed on 27 February 1985.

He was suspected of killing Ms Olesen during a robbery, court documents show, and fled Utah in April of that year after believing he was a suspect in an unrelated assault case.

Carter was arrested in Tennessee, where he signed a confession that he later said was coerced after police threatened him.

He was initially convicted and sentenced to death after a trial in which the defence called no witnesses, before being sentenced to death again after a 1992 retrial. Courts in Utah rejected numerous appeals from Carter in subsequent years.

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A turning point came in 2011, when two witnesses from Carter's original trial were tracked down in Mexico and claimed they had been told to lie in court and had received cash and gifts from police.

The witnesses also allege investigators threatened them and their son with deportation if they did not implicate Carter.

More than a decade of legal wrangling followed before the Utah Supreme Court last year ordered a new trial.

Carter's lawyers have said witnesses saw a white man fleeing the crime scene and that an investigator suppressed evidence pointing to other suspects, including the victim's husband, Orla Olesen.

They claim that prosecutors were close to filing charges against Mr Olesen, but a police lieutenant asked them not to so he could continue investigating.

Mr 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.

The stab wounds to Mrs Olesen were said to have been caused by a knife from the couple's kitchen, which was discovered near the body, but the gun used was not found at the crime scene.

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