Douglas Stewart Carter, a 71-year-old man from Chicago, was released on bail on Monday after being on death row for 41 years. He was convicted of killing Eva Olesen in Provo, Utah, in February 1985 and sentenced to death. Carter has consistently maintained his innocence, claiming that a confession he signed during a police interrogation was obtained under coercive circumstances. His case has been before the courts for decades, with questions raised over the investigation, evidence, and conduct of investigators and witnesses.
The Utah Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Carter last year, citing misconduct by investigators. This ruling allowed Carter to challenge his conviction, which had kept him on death row for over four decades. A judge subsequently granted Carter bail, despite objections from Olesen's family. As part of his release conditions, Carter is required to wear a GPS monitoring device while awaiting the new trial. Carter was living with his mother in Utah when Olesen was killed and was suspected of carrying out the murder during a robbery.
The case centered partly on a confession Carter signed after being arrested in Nashville, Tennessee. Carter's defense has maintained that the confession was coerced during police questioning. There was no physical evidence directly linking him to the crime scene at the time of his conviction. A jury convicted Carter based on the confession and testimony from two witnesses who claimed he had bragged about killing Olesen. However, the credibility of those witnesses was later challenged, with the witnesses admitting in 2011 that they had been instructed to lie in court.
The witnesses also alleged that police gave them money and gifts and threatened them with deportation if they refused to testify against Carter. Carter's lawyers argued that other evidence had not been properly presented during the original proceedings. They claimed that witnesses had reported seeing a white man fleeing the scene after the killing. The defense further alleged that an investigator suppressed evidence that pointed towards Olesen's husband, Orla Olesen, as a possible suspect.
Olesen had been stabbed several times and shot in the back of the head. Investigators believed the knife used in the stabbing came from the couple's kitchen, and the knife was found near her body. The firearm used to shoot Olesen was never recovered. Decades after the conviction, advances in DNA testing provided another opportunity to examine evidence from the crime scene. Prosecutors said this month that newly analyzed DNA evidence excluded Carter as a possible match to blood found on a doorknob and genetic material recovered from the handle of the knife.
The latest DNA findings did not establish who committed the murder, but they provided evidence that Carter was not the source of the genetic material examined from those items. Despite the DNA findings, Olesen's family opposed Carter's release from custody. Theresa Olesen, Eva Olesen's daughter-in-law, told Monday's bond hearing that the family had serious concerns about Carter being released while awaiting a new trial. She acknowledged that the absence of a DNA match did not necessarily establish that Carter had not been present at the scene.
Carter's defense lawyer, Neal Hamilton, has argued that the case should be dismissed rather than proceeding to another trial. Hamilton said Carter could have been executed years earlier if the alleged misconduct by investigators had not eventually been uncovered. The defense is now seeking to use the latest DNA findings, along with concerns surrounding the original investigation and witness testimony, in its efforts to end the case. Carter remains under GPS monitoring following his release and is awaiting the new trial.
Key points
- New DNA evidence has excluded Douglas Stewart Carter as a possible match to blood found on a doorknob and genetic material recovered from the handle of the knife used in the 1985 murder.
- Carter's case has been marked by allegations of misconduct by investigators and witnesses, including claims that witnesses were instructed to lie in court and that an investigator suppressed evidence pointing to another suspect.
- The case will continue to focus on the evidence surrounding the 1985 killing and whether prosecutors can establish Carter's involvement after the conviction that kept him on death row for 41 years.
