A Utah man who has spent nearly four decades on death row is asking a judge to throw out the murder case that put him there, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
Attorneys representing Douglas Stewart Carter filed a motion Friday seeking dismissal of his aggravated murder charge. They argue that investigators with the Provo Police Department concealed key evidence, pressured witnesses, and steered the investigation away from other possible suspects in the 1985 killing of 57-year-old Eva Olesen. Olesen was the aunt of Provo’s police chief at the time.
Prosecutors originally secured Carter’s conviction without any physical evidence linking him to the crime, the Washington Post reported. Instead, the case relied largely on a signed confession and testimony from witnesses who claimed Carter had bragged about killing Olesen. Carter has long argued that the confession was forced, Fox 13 Utah reported.
Last year, a court overturned both Carter’s conviction and his death sentence after it was revealed that the witnesses who testified against him had been paid and threatened by police. Those witnesses later withdrew their statements.
In their new filing, Carter’s lawyers say the lead detective also withheld evidence that pointed to Olesen’s husband, Orla, who was initially the main suspect. According to the defense, Orla Olesen failed a polygraph test and was close to being charged before investigators abandoned that line of inquiry. The motion also claims that physical evidence connected to him and another possible suspect has since vanished, and that an FBI behavioral analysis that did not support Carter as the killer was never disclosed to the defense.
Prosecutors have acknowledged that much of the original evidence from the case is now missing but have not yet issued a full response to the defense’s claims.
Carter, who is Black, continues to insist he is innocent. Meanwhile, Olesen’s daughter-in-law has said she still believes Carter committed the murder. A hearing to determine whether Carter could be released on bond is scheduled for June.
