Man released on bail after 41 years on death row
New DNA analysis did not match Douglas Stewart Carter, now 71, who was convicted of killing a woman but always maintained his innocence.
**Man freed on bail after 41 years on death row**
A man who spent 41 years on death row in the US after being convicted of murdering a woman has been released on bail after prosecutors said newly examined DNA evidence did not connect him to the crime.
Douglas Stewart Carter, now 71, was imprisoned for the killing of Eva Olesen in Utah in 1985.
He was sentenced to death but has always insisted he was innocent, saying a signed confession was forced from him.
Last year, the state Supreme Court ordered a new trial, pointing to misconduct by investigators, and on Monday a judge granted Carter bail despite objections from the victim’s family. He must wear a GPS monitor while out on bail.
Olesen, the aunt of a local police chief, was stabbed several times and then shot in the back of the head at her home in Provo, Utah, in February 1985.
Carter, who is originally from Chicago, was living with his mother in Utah at the time of the killing. Court records show police suspected him of killing Olesen during a robbery.
Thinking he was wanted in an unrelated case, Carter fled Utah but was later located in Nashville, Tennessee. He then signed a confession during questioning, which he later said had been coerced.
Although there was no physical evidence tying Carter to the crime scene, a jury convicted him based on the confession and the testimony of two witnesses who said he had boasted about the murder.
However, the witnesses later said in 2011 that they had been instructed to lie in court, given cash and gifts by police, and threatened with deportation if they did not testify against Carter.
After more than a decade, the Utah Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year.
Carter has always maintained his innocence, stating that a signed confession was coerced
Lawyers for Carter, who is black, said witnesses had seen a white man running from the murder scene and that an investigator had withheld evidence pointing to the victim’s husband, Orla Olesen.
They say prosecutors were close to filing charges against him, but a police officer asked them not to so he could keep investigating.
Olesen’s husband, who died in 2009, told police he had found his wife dead in their home.
The victim’s stab wounds were said to have been caused by a knife from their kitchen, which was found near her body. The gun was not recovered at the scene.
Then this month, prosecutors said DNA analysis results ruled Carter out as a possible match to blood found on a doorknob and genetic material taken from the knife handle.
Carter’s release is against the wishes of Olesen’s family.
Theresa Olesen, a daughter-in-law of Eva Olesen, said during Monday’s bond hearing that her family had "serious concerns" about Carter’s release. She said he should stay in jail while awaiting a new trial.
"By golly we were hoping for a concrete match," Olesen said of the DNA analysis. "It doesn't mean he wasn't there."
But Carter’s defence attorney, Neal Hamilton, called for the case to be dismissed.
"If the state of Utah had their way, he would have been executed 15, 20 years ago before we discovered the misconduct," he told Associated Press.