PROVO, Utah (AP) — A man who spent decades on death row in Utah asked a judge Friday to throw out his aggravated murder case after the state Supreme Court last year ordered a new trial due to misconduct by investigators.
Douglas Stewart Carter, 70, was sentenced to death in 1985 after a jury found him guilty of murdering Eva Olesen, the aunt of a former Provo police chief. 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, a white woman.
Carter argued his confession was coerced. The witnesses — 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.
Judge Derek Pullan reversed the conviction in 2022, and the Utah Supreme Court affirmed that ruling last May, saying “numerous constitutional violations” merited a retrial. Carter has remained in prison while awaiting that trial. The judge scheduled a bond hearing for June.
“Douglas Carter spent over 40 years on death row for a crime which he, and the evidence, says he did not commit. Legally, enough is enough," his defense team said in a motion filed Friday.
Recommended for you
Prosecutors have maintained that Carter’s case should not be dismissed.
Defense attorneys argue in the new motion that an investigator suppressed evidence pointing to other suspects, including the victim’s husband, Orla Olesen. The motion alleges 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.
The Provo Police Department and prosecutors with the Utah County Attorney's Office did not respond Friday to email and phone messages seeking comment. Prosecutors have not yet filed a response to the motion.
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. She had been stabbed 10 times and shot in the back of the head, according to court documents.
Prosecutors said in court filings last week that they were not sure if Provo police still had the tape recording of Orla Olesen's polygraph test. They also said they state does not have any of the clothes seized from him during the investigation. They did not have information on any other items of his that may have been taken as evidence.
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.