A Utah judge on Monday ordered bail for a 71-year-old man who spent decades on death row for a 1985 homicide, despite objections from the victim’s family and prosecutors saying newly analyzed DNA evidence did not match him.
That same year, a jury convicted Douglas Stewart Carter of murdering his aunt, Eva Olson, who was the Provo police chief at the time, and he was sentenced to death.
The state Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year, citing investigator misconduct. Carter maintains his innocence and says the signed confession was coerced.
There was no physical evidence linking him to the crime scene, but the jury convicted him based on Carter’s confession and two witnesses who told Carter he bragged about killing Olson, who was white. Those witnesses later recanted their testimony.
Judge Derek Pullan said new DNA analysis further weakened the case against Carter, but a reasonable jury could still conclude he murdered Olson.
Pullan ordered Carter to wear a GPS monitor as a condition of his release and to avoid contact with Olsen’s family.
Neil Hamilton, defending, said Carter would be placed in long-term accommodation near the family of his son, who was adopted as an infant by another family and did not learn of the conviction until years later. Hamilton said Carter will also need treatment to cope with a lengthy prison sentence.
“It’s not just ‘let’s let him go,'” Hamilton said. “He was released with 41 years of state-inflicted trauma, and the impact on him was very real.”
Defendant says confession was coerced
Pullan was scheduled for a two-month retrial in 2027, but last week Utah County prosecutors withdrew notice of their intention to seek the death penalty.
Prosecutors said DNA analysis results received on Sept. 22 ruled out a possible match between Carter’s blood found on the doorknob and genetic material found in the handle of the knife that stabbed Olson, who was also shot.
Hamilton told CBS News in August 2025 that DNA evidence found at the crime scene was compared twice to the FBI’s database, of which Carter had been a part since 1995, but no matches were returned. He said it was unclear at the time whether there would be other games.
Utah State Attorney Erwin Petillos told a judge on Monday that it was “necessary and fair” to reevaluate Carter’s bail as the state continues to review remaining evidence in the case.
Carter, a Chicago native, was living with his mother in Utah when Olson was killed on Feb. 27, 1985. The investigation eventually focused on Carter, who allegedly killed Olson during the robbery, court documents show.
By April of that year, Carter fled Utah, believing he was a suspect in an unrelated assault, court documents show. That June, Carter signed a confession while being questioned by Provo detectives in Nashville, Tennessee.
Hamilton also told CBS News in an interview last year that Carter was held for two days with his friend, who was arrested at the same time.
“They don’t house men and women together. So Doug essentially has a front-row seat to the consequences of his not pleading guilty,” Hamilton said. “Doug said and has always said the only reason he pleaded guilty was to save his friends.”
Carter later said he made the false confession after being repeatedly threatened by police. After a trial in which the defense called no witnesses, he was convicted and sentenced to death. After a retrial in 1992, he was sentenced to death again, and Utah courts rejected Carter’s many appeals in the following years.
Key witnesses say police gave them cash and gifts
A turning point came in 2011, when two witnesses from his original trial were found in Mexico. They said police asked them to lie in court and gave them cash and gifts, asking them not to disclose the payments. They also said police and prosecutors threatened them and their son with deportation if they did not implicate Carter.
After more than a decade of legal wrangling, the Utah Supreme Court last year ordered a new trial, citing “multiple instances of willful misconduct” by police and prosecutors. Under the order, DNA analysis was conducted on the evidence, and prosecutors said the results were available last week. They declined to say Monday whether they were using DNA evidence to find other suspects with matching DNA.
Victim’s husband is potential suspect
Carter’s defense attorney said witnesses saw a white man fleeing the crime scene and investigators withheld evidence pointing to other suspects, including the victim’s husband, Orla Olson.
They claim prosecutors were close to charging the husband, but a Provo police lieutenant asked them not to do so so he could continue the investigation. Carter was quickly identified as a suspect, according to court documents.
Orla Olesen, a painting contractor who died in 2009, told police he found his wife dead in their home, partially undressed and with her hands tied behind her back.
Eva Olson’s daughter-in-law, Teresa Olson, said during Monday’s bond hearing that her family has “serious concerns” about Carter’s release. She said he should remain in the Utah County Jail pending a new trial.
“Man, we wish there was a specific game,” Olson said of the DNA analysis. “That doesn’t mean he’s not there.”
“There are other factors and hopefully the investigation will continue,” she added. “We just want justice for Eva. If he was involved, we want people to know.”