Utah judge grants bail to death-row inmate after DNA evidence excludes him

A Utah judge released 71-year-old Douglas Stewart Carter on bail following a DNA analysis that excluded him as a source of blood on a doorknob and genetic material on a knife used in the 1985 killing of Eva Olesen. Carter had been sentenced to death after a jury convicted him based on a confession he later said was coerced and testimony from two witnesses who claimed he bragged about the murder.

The Utah Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year, citing misconduct by investigators and prosecutors. Prosecutors withdrew a notice that they intended to seek the death penalty and told the court that reassessing Carter’s bail was “necessary and fair” as the state continues to review the remaining evidence.

Defense attorney Neal Hamilton said Carter will be placed in an extended-stay facility near his son’s family and will receive therapy to address the effects of his long incarceration. “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.”

The original investigation focused on Carter after he fled Utah in April 1985 and was apprehended in June in Nashville, Tennessee, where he signed a confession under interrogation. In 2011, the two witnesses from the original trial were located in Mexico and said they had been paid cash and gifts by police and threatened with deportation if they did not testify against Carter.

Carter’s attorneys have also argued that witnesses saw a white man fleeing the scene and that evidence pointing to other suspects, including the victim’s husband, was suppressed. The victim’s family expressed “serious concerns” about his release, stating they hope further investigation will identify the true perpetrator.