Douglas Carter was 29 in 1985 when the police arrested him on suspicion that he had fatally shot and stabbed Eva Olesen in her home in Provo, Utah. He ultimately signed a confession, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.
Mr. Carter spent nearly four decades on death row, arguing that his confession was coerced by unscrupulous police officers. In 2022, a court overturned his conviction, finding that the investigation had been tainted by serious misconduct from the lead prosecutor, the lead investigator and another police officer.
For four more years, Mr. Carter remained behind bars as prosecutors sought to try him again. But at a hearing on Monday, a judge agreed to free Mr. Carter, now 71, without bail after prosecutors had acknowledged that DNA found at the crime scene was not his. He walked out of a Utah County jail Monday evening, accompanied by his son, Tyler Anger.
“We are profoundly grateful to see Doug finally go home, but we are also heartbroken by the theft of his life,” his lawyer, Neal Hamilton, said in a statement. “When Doug was arrested, he was a bright young man standing on the cusp of his future. He leaves custody a 71-year-old man hoping to enjoy what remains of the twilight years of his life.”
Mr. Carter is still charged with Ms. Olesen’s murder, but prosecutors said they are examining whether to move forward with the case and expect to give a Utah district court judge an answer by Nov. 10.
Last week, prosecutors said they would no longer seek the death penalty after they received the results of new DNA testing. The results showed that Mr. Carter’s DNA did not match the DNA on six pieces of evidence found in Ms. Olesen’s home, including blood on a doorknob and DNA on the handle of the knife that was used to stab her.
“There were DNA results that did not include the defendant,” a Utah County prosecutor, Erwin Petilos, told Judge Derek P. Pullan at the hearing on Monday, as Mr. Carter and members of Ms. Olesen’s family looked on. Given that fact, he said, prosecutors were “reassessing the remaining evidence in the case” and believed that it was “necessary and fair” for Judge Pullan to consider releasing Mr. Carter.
In court filings, prosecutors said the DNA results did not “necessarily exonerate” Mr. Carter because Ms. Olesen was also shot with a .357 or .38-caliber gun that was never found, and witnesses testified at the time that Mr. Carter’s wife owned a .38 that was also never found.
Ms. Olesen’s family members had asked Judge Pullan, of Utah’s Fourth District Court, in Provo, not to free Mr. Carter, pointing out that he was still charged with the murder.
“We still do not believe that he is completely innocent,” Ms. Olesen’s daughter-in-law, Theresa Olesen, said at Mr. Carter’s bail hearing on Monday. “There are other factors and, hopefully, the investigation will continue. And we just want justice for Eva, and if he had any part of it, we want that to be known.”
Eva Olesen, 57, was a teacher, mother, grandmother and active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the local Parent Teacher Association. She was also the aunt of the Provo police chief. On Feb. 27, 1985, she was found by her husband with her hands tied behind her back and her clothes removed from the waist down, according to court records. She had been stabbed 10 times and shot in the back of the head.
Court records indicate that the police had received tips pointing to Mr. Carter as a potential suspect. He ultimately signed a confession, even though no physical evidence tied him to the crime scene.
At his trial, two witnesses for the prosecution — Epifanio Tovar and his wife, Lucia — provided testimony corroborating aspects of Mr. Carter’s confession. They said that they had seen Mr. Carter just before and after the murder, and that Mr. Carter had told Mr. Tovar that he had murdered a woman and showed Mr. Tovar how he had done it.
Decades later, however, the Tovars signed sworn declarations stating that the police had threatened them with deportation, pressured them to make false statements and instructed them to lie at Mr. Carter’s trial when asked whether the police had paid them any money, according to court records.
A police officer coached Mr. Tovar to testify falsely that Mr. Carter had told him just before the murder that he was going to go out and “rape, break, and drive,” court records show.
And when Mr. Tovar was asked at the trial whether the police had provided him or his family with any financial assistance, he falsely claimed that he and his wife had received only a $14 “witness fee,” court records show. In truth, the Tovars had received about $4,000 from the police in the months leading up to trial. The lead prosecutor in the case knew of those payments but did not correct Mr. Tovar on the stand, court records show.
Last year, the Utah Supreme Court upheld the 2022 ruling by Judge Pullan that had overturned Mr. Carter’s conviction. Both rulings cited serious violations of Mr. Carter’s constitutional rights.
“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,” the Utah Supreme Court said.
As a condition of releasing Mr. Carter, Judge Pullan required that he be monitored by a private probation provider, wear a GPS monitor and obey an 11 p.m. curfew, among other requirements. Mr. Hamilton declined to make Mr. Carter available for an interview on Tuesday, but said his client had been looking forward to drinking his first cup of coffee in 41 years and looking through photos of his son.
“It is my desire to clear my name and enjoy what little time I have left with my family,” Mr. Carter said in a sworn statement seeking his release last month. “I was convicted of a crime that I did not do, and I do not wish to live with this burden hanging over my head. I will do everything in my power to clear my name and see these charges dismissed.”
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