By Aidan Krause
Staff Writer
Seventy-one-year-old Douglas Steward Carter was released from prison on Sept. 28 after spending decades in prison stemming from a 1985 murder trial in which he was found guilty, according to The Associated Press.
The Associated Press reported that the Feb. 27, 1985 case originated from the murder of Eva Olsen, a police chief's aunt, during a home robbery. Carter was suspected and eventually fled to Nashville, Tennessee that April due to an unrelated assault case.
Carter was eventually apprehended and signed a confession while under interrogation by a Utah Provo detective and was reportedly threatened by police to confess.
At his trial, two of the witnesses for the prosecution, Epifanio Tovar and his wife Lucia, testified to parts of Carter's confession in which Carter supposedly told Tovar that he had murdered a woman and the way that he did so, The New York Times reported.
However, decades later, Mr. and Mrs. Tovar signed sworn declarations that the testimony was false and that the police had threatened them with deportation while also having been given around 4,000 dollars in the months before the trial to push them to testify against Carter.
After a 1992 retrial, Carter was then sentenced to death, and in subsequent years, Utah courts would reject. Carter's numerous appeals, according to CBS News.
The defense attorneys for Carter have stated that witnesses saw a white man fleeing the crime scene and that other potential suspects were suppressed, including the victim's husband, Orla Olesen.
In 2022, a court overturned Carter's original conviction, finding that the case was heavily tainted and citing abuses of. Carter's constitutional rights. Prosecutors sought to try him again, according to The New York Times.
Now, just recently, a DNA analysis that was received on Sept. 22 found Carter had no match to six pieces of evidence, including blood and genetic material found on a doorknob and knife found at the crime scene, The Associated Press reported.
Utah Judge Derek Pullan stated that “those results further undermined the case against Carter, but a reasonable jury still could conclude that he killed Olesen.”
The potential retrial is reportedly going to be scheduled for next year, as county prosecutors have removed a notice that they would be seeking the death penalty in the case, according to The Associated Press.
Thresea Olesen, Eva Olesen's daughter-in-law, said during a bond hearing that she and her family had concerns about Carter's release while awaiting trial, saying that Carter should remain in jail while waiting for trial, CBS News reported.
Thresea also stated, “By golly we were hoping for a concrete match,” she said of the DNA analysis, and that “It doesn't mean he wasn't there.”
Upon his release, Carter was placed in an extended stay in a hotel near his son, who was adopted as a baby and didn’t learn about his biological father's conviction until later, The Associated Press reported.
In a statement the month before his release, Carter declared that “It is my desire to clear my name and enjoy what little time I have left with my family.”
Carter's attorney, Neal Hamilton, mentioned that Carter is looking forward to having his first cup of coffee in 41 years and seeing photos of his son.
