Douglas Stewart Carter was sentenced to death in 1985 after a jury found him guilty of murdering Eva Olesen. In 2022, Judge Derek Pullan reversed the conviction, and the Utah Supreme Court affirmed that ruling last May, saying numerous constitutional violations merited a retrial. Carter has since asked a judge to throw out his aggravated murder case following the court's order.
The original trial relied heavily on flawed evidence, with no physical evidence linking Carter to the crime scene. The jury convicted him based on a signed confession and two witnesses who said he had bragged about the killing. Carter argued his confession was coerced, and the witnesses later stated 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.
Defense attorneys allege that an investigator suppressed evidence pointing to other suspects, including the victim's husband, Orla Olesen. According to the defense, prosecutors were close to filing charges against Orla Olesen, but a Provo police lieutenant asked them not to so he could continue investigating. Carter was identified as a suspect soon after this alleged suppression.
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. Court documents indicate Eva Olesen had been stabbed 10 times and shot in the back of the head. Currently, Carter has remained in prison while awaiting the new trial, with a bond hearing scheduled for June.
Prosecutors have maintained that Carter's case should not be dismissed. In court filings last week, prosecutors said they were not sure if Provo police still have the tape recording of Orla Olesen's polygraph test, and they confirmed the state does not have any of the clothes seized from Orla Olesen during the investigation.