Utah prosecutors are dropping their plan to seek the death penalty in an upcoming retrial of a 71-year-old man who spent decades on death row for a 1985 killing in which newly analyzed DNA evidence did not match him.
Douglas Stewart Carter was sentenced to death in 1985 after a jury found him guilty of murdering Eva Olesen, the aunt of a former Provo police chief. The state Supreme Court last year ordered a new trial, citing misconduct by investigators. Carter remains in custody and maintains his innocence.
No physical evidence linked him to the crime scene, but the jury convicted Carter, a Black man, based on a signed confession and two witnesses who said he had bragged about killing Olesen, who was white.
Judge Derek Pullan set a bond hearing for Monday, when defense attorney Neal Hamilton said he expects his client to be released pending an eight-week trial set to begin next July.
“It’s not time to try to save face and continue with a tainted prosecution,” Hamilton said. “They know they don’t have a case. The moral obligation is to dismiss.”
Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray said in a Wednesday court filing that the state was withdrawing an earlier notice that it intended to seek the death penalty. He said results of a DNA analysis received Tuesday excluded Carter as a possible match to blood found on a doorknob and material found on the handle of a knife used to stab Olesen, who was also shot.
Gray said the state planned to reexamine its decision to move forward with the case. But the prosecutor added that the new evidence “does not necessarily exonerate Carter of the murder.” Gray noted the handgun used to shoot Olesen was never found and Carter confessed.
Members of Olesen’s family had testified during a hearing last month that Carter could pose a safety risk to them if he were released.
I recently read about the West Memphis Three.
A notoriously incompetent police force plus death sentence is a really bad combination.
Carter has said his signed confession was coerced. The two witnesses he allegedly bragged to — a couple living in the U.S. without legal status — said years later that police and prosecutors offered to pay their rent, coached them to lie in court and threatened them and their son with deportation if they did not implicate Carter.
Members of Olesen’s family had testified during a hearing last month that Carter could pose a safety risk to them if he were released.
We’re worried if the innocent man we supported putting behind bars for his entire life goes free, something bad might happen to us!
Cry me a river
Well yes, but you see, he’s a Black man, and you can’t just let them go free like you can a White man. Very dangerous. And this is Utah after all, so Black people are rare and scary and a “safety risk”.
I hope they have problems
Republicans: “we should execute him anyway, just to sure. Odds are he’s done something else bad that we don’t know about yet.”
“His DNA was found at the scene of a child sexual harassment scene.”
“Eh, nevermind, let 'im walk. The good Lord can judge him.”
You see this kind of thing a lot. WM3 was the same thing. It usually just means another human was in that location at some time. Not an un-smoking gun.
