A 71-year-old man in the United States who spent 41 years on death row has been released on bail after newly analysed DNA evidence failed to link him to the murder for which he was convicted.
Douglas Stewart Carter was convicted of killing Eva Olesen in Provo, Utah, in February 1985 and sentenced to death. Carter had consistently maintained his innocence, saying a confession he signed during police interrogation was coerced.
According to the BBC, the Utah Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Carter last year after finding evidence of misconduct by investigators.
A judge on Monday granted Carter bail despite objections from Olesen’s family. He has been ordered to wear a GPS monitoring device while awaiting his new trial.
Olesen, the aunt of a local police chief, was stabbed several times and shot in the back of the head at her home.
Carter, originally from Chicago, was living with his mother in Utah at the time. Police suspected him of killing Olesen during a robbery. He later fled Utah after believing he was a suspect in an unrelated case and was eventually arrested in Nashville, Tennessee, where he signed a confession during interrogation.
However, there was no physical evidence initially linking him to the crime scene. He was convicted largely on the basis of his confession and testimony from two witnesses who claimed that Carter had bragged about the killing.
The two witnesses later said in 2011 that police had instructed them to lie in court, given them cash and gifts, and threatened them with deportation if they refused to testify against Carter.
Carter’s lawyers also said witnesses had reported seeing a white man fleeing the scene. They further alleged that an investigator suppressed evidence pointing to Olesen’s husband, Orla Olesen, as a possible suspect. Orla died in 2009.
Prosecutors said this month that DNA testing had excluded Carter as a possible match to blood found on a doorknob and genetic material recovered from the handle of the knife believed to have been used in the killing.
Carter’s release was opposed by Olesen’s family. Theresa Olesen, Eva Olesen’s daughter-in-law, said the family had serious concerns about his release and wanted him to remain in custody until the new trial.
Carter’s defence lawyer, Neal Hamilton, has called for the case to be dismissed, arguing that Carter could have been executed years ago if the alleged investigative misconduct had not been uncovered.
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