Utah prosecutors drop death penalty bid in Carter retrial after DNA mismatch

Utah prosecutors have withdrawn their intent to seek the death penalty in the retrial of Douglas Stewart Carter, a 71-year-old man who has spent decades on death row for a 1985 killing. The decision followed newly analyzed DNA results that excluded him as a possible source of blood on a doorknob and material on a knife handle used to stab the victim, Eva Olesen.

The Utah County Attorney, Jeffrey Gray, said in a court filing on Wednesday that the state was pulling back its earlier notice to pursue capital punishment. He added that prosecutors would reexamine whether to proceed with the case at all, while cautioning that the DNA findings “do not necessarily exonerate Carter of the murder.” Gray pointed to Carter's signed confession and noted that the handgun used to shoot Olesen was never recovered.

Carter was convicted in 1985 of murdering Olesen, the aunt of a former Provo police chief. No physical evidence tied him to the scene; the jury relied on his confession and on two witnesses who said he had bragged about the killing. The state Supreme Court last year ordered a new trial, citing misconduct by investigators. Carter remains in custody and has consistently maintained his innocence.

His attorney, Neal Hamilton, on Thursday called on prosecutors to drop the charges and requested a bond hearing. Hamilton said he expects Carter to be released while awaiting an eight-week trial scheduled for 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.”

Carter has argued that his confession was coerced. The two witnesses who said he bragged about the killing — a couple living in the United States without legal status — later said 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.

Defense attorneys have also said an investigator suppressed evidence pointing to other suspects, including the victim's husband, Orla Olesen. They allege prosecutors were close to filing charges against the husband, but a Provo police lieutenant asked them not to so he could continue investigating. Carter was identified as a suspect soon after, according to the defense account. Orla Olesen, who died in 2009, had told police he found his wife dead in their home, partially undressed and with her hands tied behind her back.