A man is released from prison after decades on death row in Utah: The DNA doesn't match

A 71-year-old man who spent more than four decades on Utah’s death row was released on bail on Monday, September 28, 2026, after DNA analysis by the state crime laboratory excluded him from biological material recovered at the crime scene. The aggravated murder charge, however, remains in place, and a new trial is scheduled for 2027.

Douglas Stewart Carter was convicted in 1985 of the murder of Eva Olesen, 57, who was killed on February 27 of that year in her home in Provo. Olesen, an aunt of the city’s police chief at the time, was found by her husband with stab wounds and a gunshot wound. Carter, a Chicago native then living in Utah, was arrested months later in Nashville, Tennessee, where he signed a confession during an interrogation led by a Provo detective. He has always maintained that the statement was obtained under coercion.

A conviction questioned from the start

There were no fingerprints, no weapon attributed to the defendant, and no physical traces placing him in the home. The case rested on the confession and on the testimony of two witnesses, Epifanio Tovar and his wife Lucía, who said Carter had bragged about the killing. In 2011 both recanted, stating that police had paid their rent, phone and utilities and had threatened to deport their son if they did not testify against Carter.

Carter was sentenced to death in 1985. In 1989, the Utah Supreme Court vacated that sentence because of erroneous jury instructions; in 1992 he was again sentenced to death.

In November 2022, Fourth District Judge Derek Pullan vacated the conviction. On May 15, 2025, the state Supreme Court affirmed that ruling and ordered a new trial. In its opinion, the court said it is “rare to see a case involving multiple instances of intentional misconduct by two different police officers … and a prosecutor,” referring to Lt. George Pierpont, Officer Richard Mack and prosecutor Wayne Watson. The ruling cited the suppression of evidence, the suborning of perjury and the failure to correct false testimony.

The DNA evidence and the withdrawal of the death penalty

In response to that court order, the Utah County Attorney’s Office submitted evidence to the state crime laboratory. According to a filing by prosecutors on September 23, DNA from blood found on a doorknob and genetic material recovered from the handle of the knife used in the attack exclude Carter. Earlier testing of a pillow, a bloody handprint and drops of blood in the snow also failed to match his profile in the FBI’s CODIS database, where his DNA has been on file since the 1990s.

County Attorney Jeffrey Gray then withdrew the state’s notice that it would seek the death penalty and asked that both the prosecution and Carter’s custody status be reexamined. He made clear, however, that the results “do not exonerate” Carter and that prosecutors are still evaluating the remaining evidence.

"The state stole 41 years of his life"

Carter's attorney, Neal Hamilton, said in a statement: "The state stole 41 years of his life and subjected him to the horrors of being on death row for more than 40 years, but tonight he is finally home."

The Utah Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year, citing "serious misconduct" on the part of investigators.

Carter, now free on bail, is awaiting a new trial that could exonerate him once and for all.