The Utah Supreme Court has ruled that “numerous constitutional violations” during the trial and sentencing of Douglas Stewart Carter, a man who has spent decades on death row, merit a new trial.
In a unanimous ruling on Thursday, the state’s highest court upheld a lower court’s decision that police and prosecutors had violated Carter’s constitutional rights.
The Context
Carter, 69, was sentenced to death in 1985 after a jury found him guilty of murdering Eva Oleson, the aunt of a former Provo police chief who was found stabbed and shot in her home.
Although no physical evidence linked him to the crime scene, Carter, a Black man, was convicted based on a written confession and two witnesses who said he bragged about killing Oleson, who was white. Carter argued his confession was coerced, and the witnesses, two immigrants without legal status, later said police and prosecutors had pressured them to falsely implicate Carter.
What To Know
The Utah Supreme Court sent Carter’s case to a lower court for review in 2019 after the witnesses, Epifanio Tovar and his wife, Lucia, signed sworn declarations saying police and prosecutors had coached them to lie in court, threatened to deport them or their son if they did not implicate Carter in Oleson’s murder. They said they were also instructed by police to lie about financial assistance they had received from police during Carter’s trial.
Judge Derek Pullan ordered a new trial in 2022, saying the witness testimonies and police misconduct prejudiced Carter’s original trial. The Utah attorney general’s office appealed, leading to the High Court’s decision on Thursday.
“There is no question that these numerous constitutional violations—suppressing evidence, suborning perjury, and knowingly failing to correct false testimony—prejudiced Carter at both his trial and sentencing,” Justice Paige Petersen wrote in the opinion.
“It is rare to see a case involving multiple instances of intentional misconduct by two different police officers—one of them the lead investigator on the case—and a prosecutor. But that is what the postconviction court found here.
“Two officers instructed important prosecution witnesses to lie not only about receiving benefits from the police, but also, in Epifanio’s case, to fabricate a statement intended to show that Carter harbored a premeditated intent to commit rape on the night of the murder.
“Epifanio went along with the coaching and perjured himself repeatedly. And the prosecutor stood by while Epifanio denied receiving any benefits, knowing the testimony was false, and did nothing to correct it.”
The postconviction court vacated Carter’s conviction and sentence and ordered a new trial “because it determined these violations prejudiced Carter within the meaning of [the Postconviction Remedies Act],” Petersen said. “Its ‘confidence [was] undermined in both Carter’s conviction and sentence.’ So is ours. We affirm.”
What People Are Saying
Carter’s attorney Eric Zuckerman said in a statement, per The Associated Press: “Mr. Carter has spent more than forty years behind bars because of an unconstitutional conviction rooted in police and prosecutorial misconduct — including the suborning of perjury before a jury of his peers.
“We are gratified that both the trial court and the Utah Supreme Court have validated Mr. Carter’s claims. But no ruling can restore the four decades of freedom the state of Utah unjustly took from him.”
Madison McMicken, a spokesperson for Utah Attorney General Derek Brown, said: “We extend our hearts and sympathies to the family of Eva Olesen, who have sought justice for her murder the last 40 years. We are disappointed the Olesen family does not yet have a resolution in this case.”
What Happens Next
Carter remains in prison while he awaits a new trial, his attorney said.
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