Utah prosecutors say DNA evidence doesn't match man who spent decades on
death row
[September 25, 2026]
By MATTHEW BROWN
Utah prosecutors are dropping their plan to seek the death penalty in an
upcoming retrial of a 71-year-old man who spent decades on death row for
a 1985 killing in which newly analyzed DNA evidence did not match him.
Douglas Stewart Carter was sentenced to death in 1985 after a jury found
him guilty of murdering Eva Olesen, the aunt of a former Provo police
chief. The state Supreme Court last year ordered a new trial, citing
misconduct by investigators. Carter remains in custody and maintains his
innocence.
No physical evidence linked him to the crime scene, but the jury
convicted Carter, a Black man, based on a signed confession and two
witnesses who said he had bragged about killing Olesen, who was white.
Judge Derek Pullan set a bond hearing for Monday, when defense attorney
Neal Hamilton said he expects his client to be released pending an
eight-week trial set to begin 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.”
Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray said in a Wednesday court filing that
the state was withdrawing an earlier notice that it intended to seek the
death penalty. He said results of a DNA analysis received Tuesday
excluded Carter as a possible match to blood found on a doorknob and
material found on the handle of a knife used to stab Olesen, who was
also shot.
Gray said the state planned to reexamine its decision to move forward
with the case. But the prosecutor added that the new evidence “does not
necessarily exonerate Carter of the murder.” Gray noted the handgun used
to shoot Olesen was never found and Carter confessed.
Members of Olesen's family had testified during a hearing last month
that Carter could pose a safety risk to them if he were released.
In a Thursday statement, the family said they “will not comment on the
guilt or innocence of any individual” while prosecutors decide how to
proceed.
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Douglas Carter is brought into the courtroom for a hearing in 4th
District Court in Provo, Utah, April 3, 2026. (Chris Samuels/The
Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool, File)
“The latest developments have raised difficult questions and once
again left our family without the sense of resolution we had hoped
for after so many years,” the family said in the statement released
by the Utah County Attorney's Office.
Carter has said his signed confession was coerced. The two witnesses
he allegedly bragged to — a couple living in the U.S. without legal
status — said years later 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.
His defense attorneys also say witnesses saw a white man fleeing the
crime scene and that 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, the document alleges.
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.
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