Utah Supreme Court orders new trial for man on death row after police misconduct surfaces

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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Utah Supreme Court ruled Thursday that “numerous constitutional violations” during the trial and sentencing of a man who spent decades on death row merit a new trial.

Justices affirmed the ruling of a lower court judge who had ordered a new trial for Douglas Stewart Carter after finding issues with how police and prosecutors handled his case. Carter, 69, was sentenced to death in 1985 after a jury found him guilty of murdering Eva Olesen, the aunt of a former Provo police chief who was found stabbed a dozen times and shot in the head.

While no physical evidence linked him to the crime scene, prosecutors convicted Carter, a Black man, based on a written confession and two witnesses who said he had bragged about killing Olesen, a white woman. Carter has argued his confession was coerced.

In 2019, the Utah Supreme Court sent Carter’s case back to a lower court for review after the witnesses — two immigrants without legal status — said police and prosecutors offered to pay their rent, coached them to lie in court and threatened to deport them or their son if they did not implicate Carter.

Judge Derek Pullan ordered a new trial in 2022, saying the witness testimonies and police misconduct prejudiced the original trial. The Utah Attorney General's office appealed, leading to the high court's decision Thursday.

“There is no question that these numerous constitutional violations — suppressing evidence, suborning perjury, and knowingly failing to correct false testimony — prejudiced Carter at both his trial and sentencing,” Justice Paige Petersen wrote in the high court’s opinion.

It's rare, she added, to see a case involving “multiple instances of intentional misconduct” by two police officers, including the lead investigator, and a prosecutor. Provo Police Lt. George Pierpont had obtained the confession from Carter, and Officer Richard Mack gathered witness statements. The postconviction court also found that prosecutor Wayne Watson was present when police directed a witness to lie, and that he did not correct the false testimony during trial.

Carter remains in prison while he awaits a new trial, said his attorney, Eric Zuckerman.

“Mr. Carter has spent more than forty years behind bars because of an unconstitutional conviction rooted in police and prosecutorial misconduct — including the suborning of perjury before a jury of his peers,” Zuckerman said in a statement. "We are gratified that both the trial court and the Utah Supreme Court have validated Mr. Carter’s claims. But no ruling can restore the four decades of freedom the state of Utah unjustly took from him.”

Carter is among several inmates involved in a separate lawsuit challenging Utah's execution methods and protocols.

Olesen's family has repeatedly expressed frustration that the decades-old murder case is ongoing.

“We extend our hearts and sympathies to the family of Eva Olesen, who have sought justice for her murder the last 40 years," said Madison McMicken, a spokesperson for Utah Attorney General Derek Brown. “We are disappointed the Olesen family does not yet have a resolution in this case.”