After 41 Years on Utah's Death Row, DNA Finally Pulled Douglas Stewart Carter Out

Douglas Stewart Carter walked out of a Utah jail Monday night a free man, at least for now, after 41 years on death row. The state couldn’t even argue the DNA still tied him to the crime, because it doesn’t.

Fourth District Judge Derek Pullan ordered the 71-year-old released on bail late Monday, Sept. 28, after prosecutors told the court newly analyzed DNA evidence doesn’t link Carter to the 1985 killing of Eva Olesen in Provo. According to the AP, a DNA analysis received Sept. 22 excluded Carter as a match to blood found on a doorknob at the scene and genetic material recovered from the handle of the knife used to stab Olesen, who was also shot.

Carter has always maintained his innocence, and the case against him was built on almost nothing. According to the AP, no physical evidence linked him to the crime scene. The jury convicted Carter, a Black man, based on a signed confession he says was coerced and the testimony of two witnesses who claimed he bragged about killing Olesen. Those witnesses, Epifanio and Lucia Tovar, recanted in 2011, saying police gave them cash and gifts in exchange for their testimony and threatened them with deportation if they didn’t implicate Carter.

The Utah Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year, citing misconduct by investigators. Last week, prosecutors withdrew their notice to seek the death penalty again. Judge Pullan said the new DNA results further undermined the prosecution’s case, though he added that a reasonable jury could still conclude Carter was guilty. A retrial is scheduled for 2027, and the murder charge still stands.

Carter’s release comes with conditions: a GPS monitor, a curfew, and a no-contact order with Olesen’s family. He is expected to live near his son’s family while the case moves forward. “He’s being released with 41 years of state-induced trauma,” his lawyer Neal Hamilton told reporters, per CNN, adding that Carter will need therapy to process what four decades on death row for a crime the science no longer connects him to did to him.

Sources: AP, CNN.