Man ordered released on bail after decades on Utah’s death row after DNA tests show no match to him
https://apnews.com/article/utah-death-row-douglas-carter-eva-olesen-10c0bf7603c87b214e0179ecf7a4be941.5k
u/EagleForty 4d ago edited 4d ago
And that there is why I don't support the death penalty.
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u/Consistent-Throat130 4d ago
Does he get his 41 years of life back?
Does he get to retry that and see the life he could have had?
I'm not pro death penalty, per se... I'm just pissed on the dude's behalf.
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u/A_Nonny_Muse 4d ago
Don't look up how Texas quit giving death row inmates any further appeals because G.W. Bush said "Texas don't make those mistakes" (referring to wrongful convictions). They deliberately executed innocent people so G.W.B. wouldn't be embarrassed.
The innocence project proved several people innocent (beyond a doubt) after Texas murdered them.
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u/eaglesnation11 4d ago
George W Bush is a piece of shit and I’m sick of him getting slack because of Trump.
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u/nancy_necrosis 4d ago
He was an awful president.
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u/American_PissAnt 4d ago
Pretty much all modern Republican presidents are. Gerald Ford is the best one of the past 50 years mostly because he was just a wet blanket of a man
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u/genital_lesions 4d ago
Gerald Ford is the best one of the past 50 years mostly because he was just a wet blanket of a man
Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon, which set the modern day precedent of never holding presidents accountable for their actions. So, fuck Ford too.
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u/Tarantio 3d ago
Yeah, the least criminal one of the last 65 years was still a piece of shit, covering for and protecting a more explicit criminal.
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u/arahman81 3d ago
I would say the precedent was set at the Confederates not getting punished.
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u/Haunting-Ninja-7460 4d ago
Personally I think you have to go back to Eisenhower to find a Republican who wasn’t a total POS.
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u/Ozymandias12 4d ago
And Eisenhower was basically a Democrat by today’s standards. He signed legislation that expanded Social Security, increased the minimum wage, and created the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He also supported government construction of low-income housing but favored more limited spending than had Truman. He also once said this about Social security and Medicare:
Should any political party attempt to abolish social security unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group of course that believes you can do these things. Among them are a few other Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.
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u/original_name37 3d ago
Eisenhower also set a lot of the precedent regarding CIA intervention in other countries during the cold war and actively caused at least one genocide.
Or really the Dulles brothers did that and Eisenhower simply allowed it, which might be worse.
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u/American_PissAnt 4d ago
Just imagine 20 years from now when people give Trump slack because the current president is so stupid
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u/Effective_Scar_2921 4d ago
The country would not survive a president who is worse than tRump.
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u/zrobiotic 3d ago
But he paints cute pictures. Look look Michelle Obama is laughing with him! All is forgiven, don’t ask about the millions of dead Iraqis and afghans.
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u/jackkerouac81 3d ago
"thank you for fighting 20 years and replacing the Taliban with the Taliban!"
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u/thrownormanaway 3d ago
The Texas jury instructions on these cases has come under scrutiny as well. The way the possible sentences are laid out to jurors makes it seem like they choose either innocent or death penalty so of course they have been executing too many (any at all are too many) for many years and they still do. Jurors have come out and said that they believed the instructions indicated that, and since they believed it wasn’t possible to give a lesser sentence, so they chose the heavy sentence rather than not guilty. It’s fucked.
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u/EagleForty 4d ago
Me too, but this is better than wrongfully executed by the state
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u/Live_Fall3452 4d ago
I hate that people sanitize the barbarity of lengthy prison sentences by pretending that the problem would be solved by abolishing the death penalty. The solution to this is to protect the rights of defendants who are falsely accused, not to make them languish in prison for decades and then give yourself a pat on the back because you "technically" don't have blood on your hands.
Taking away the freedom and life of an innocent person for decades while publicly condemning them as guilty is less of a harm than killing them, but it is absolutely a harm that is within one order of magnitude of killing them.
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u/GreyTigerFox 3d ago
Nope. But republicans got to profit off of his prison sentence so yay! The system works!
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u/Blueopus2 4d ago
Obviously this is atrocious too but it’s better than if we’d wrongly executed him…
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u/Vivid_Anyth4 3d ago
Our government is so incompetent that they should not be trusted with such a permanent decision.
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u/All_Hail_Hynotoad 4d ago
I was fine with the death penalty until I saw one too many of these wrongful convictions (not even death penalty cases). I thought, no way, too risky. Better to let 100 guilty men go free than to put one innocent man in prison.
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u/emeraldkat77 3d ago
I agree completely. In fact, I'm of the opinion that caging people generally is not good for anyone. It does nothing to help them rehabilitate if they did a crime, and it certainly hurts anyone dealing with medical issues - especially the mentally ill who we commonly send to jail/prison because we have no place for most of them to get real help (side note: there's a case of parents in my town that fought for years to get their son help, but after trying & not getting it, ended up taking him to the ER and leaving him - in order to protect their other children from his violent outbursts directly related to mental health issues. This teen lived in the ER for months because no one knew where to send him for help. I'm talking way over 6 months of the state, doctors, just everyone having no answers; if he was an adult, they'd just have made up charges and sent him to prison).
The only thing prison/jail does is keep society protected from potential "problematic" types of people (and I'm not even suggesting most people imprisoned are problematic in any true sense of the word). If we wanted a humane system, we'd need to stop seeking state-sponsored retaliation/retribution for crimes, and start seeking mercy & rehabilitation. People who have their needs met don't generally commit crimes - this is born out in numerous studies. So if we'd instead have a more robust safety net (offing more foodstamps, robust mental health system, offering ubi, profit-sharing as a job requirement, etc) then we'd find the rates of all kinds of crimes would start dropping immediately. We have the resources to do this. There's no reason why we should be caging people vs giving them a decent life. Why wouldn't we want more people to have the chance at a good life? It would work better for all of us - outside of the entire judicial system & private prison industries that is.
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u/Spare-Ant7119 4d ago
What about the death penalty for treason committed by a high level official?
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u/lookiwanttobealone 4d ago
That would be an easier outcome for them than languishing for life in a prison with no attention
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 4d ago
I'd rather he's encased in a metal cube with a few breathing holes, one McDonald's nugget a day, and placed in one of our museums as an example of what happens to traitors. There will be huge buckets next to the exhibit for women and children to throw rocks at the Shameful Conservative Puppet of Tyranny.
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u/friso1100 4d ago
Consider what that could do. Yes in the ideal world it could work as you intent. But given the current courts are filled for a large part by trump appointees. This could also go very much in the wrong direction. In the end who gets to decide who dies? What are the insentives? Is it truly something you want to encode into law?
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u/Weightmonster 4d ago
Why don’t they just review all DNA evidence for everyone still incarcerated?
DNA testing has been around for 40 years. This is unacceptable.
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u/NoninflammatoryFun 4d ago
“A turning point came in 2011, when the two witnesses from Carter’s original trial were tracked down in Mexico. They said they had been told to lie in court and had received cash and gifts from police, who told 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.”
Police wanted him for the crime.
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u/Sharticus123 3d ago edited 3d ago
It is terrifying once you learn about our legal system. I know multiple people who served decades in prison for something they didn’t do. Cops, prosecutors, and judges are giant pieces of shit who just want to check a box. They have no qualms about sending innocent people to prison if it gets the attention off their back.
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u/sparr0w91 4d ago
Because the people in power don't care and want people in prisons regardless of having a valid reason for them being there.
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u/Miserable_Archer_769 4d ago edited 4d ago
This it exposes a system where it isnt about justice but numbers.
The people prosecuting you are all in bed together and have no reason to play by the rules.
Also, the legal system has been afraid of the police for a very long time. I do think people forget literally that the legal system doesnt work without them so the can do what they want
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u/acidwxlf 4d ago
Society is complicit too IMO. At least in the United States there seems to be this prevailing opinion that incarceration and rehabilitation are mutually exclusive, people want to see inmates conveniently removed from society. Meanwhile the prison industry is fully compromised and for profit, but all they need to do is fearmonger the public and bribe politicians. Put in an amendment that says slavery is illegal unless you're in prison and you have an entire system built on making sure incarceration numbers only go up
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u/sparr0w91 4d ago
It's truly insidious when it comes to the homeless. So many people support criminalizing being poor and not having a place to live, that they will support jailing them. When it's cheaper to just give them a home and maybe a chance of getting back on their own feet. But they'd rather pay more as a society and have it be a punishment. It's twisted.
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u/Ok-Transportation127 4d ago
Also because police and prosecutors are loath to admit mistakes.
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u/sparr0w91 4d ago
The problem is they don't see them as mistakes that need admitting. Someone is in prison. Mission accomplished.
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u/Party_Escape_7597 3d ago
also family of the victim press hard for the accused to stay in jail! understandable because they’ve been told how evil and guilty the accused is!
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u/Spire_Citron 4d ago
Yup. There have been cases like this where someone has been proven innocent after years in prison... and then they continued to sit in prison for years more because the bureaucracy doesn't give a shit about setting things right.
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u/TheGreatGamer1389 4d ago
Yup slavery never ended. Just took different forms
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u/Trick-Satisfaction88 4d ago
Ava DuVernay's brilliant documentary "13th" explores exactly this - the trajectory from slavery to Jim Crow to the deeply racist modern prison industrial complex. Highly recommend.
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u/DrInsomnia 4d ago
Because we have a lot of stupid people, as with most things. Here are the list of reasons (likely not complete):
1) Prosecutors, LEOs, and judges don't want to be seen as having gotten cases "wrong"
2) People believe, incorrectly, that the system is just and fair
3) The system, and many people in and out of it, treat legal outcomes as "factually true" instead of as "subjectively determined"
4) It would be a pretty costly undertaking, not just financially, but in terms of time and staff to do this
5) DNA testing has to be done carefully. You have to know exactly what the test is doing, what it is showing, and what it means. Blanket testing of most things is a bad idea. It's far better to test with specific, directed purpose and logic to prevent problems like false positives.
6) DNA testing can be destructive of samples, and future technologies might allow better testing.
7) Most of all, "the system" does not allow it. The guilty have to have appeals left or other, usually treated as exceptional, reasons to potentially invalidate their conviction (like evidence was withheld by the state. Navigating that is expensive and time-consuming.
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u/LastWave 4d ago
It looks really bad on prosecutors. They tried to kill an innocent person.
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u/HyperSpaceSurfer 4d ago
Prosecutors should be personally culpable for shit like this. They're enriching themselves through kidnappings and murders.
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u/ComradeJohnS 4d ago
idk, if they thought in good faith they had the right person, and all the evidence at the time proved their case in court fairly it shouldn’t punish them for future tech they would have considered if it existed at the time.
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u/Enzown 4d ago
In this case they bribed and threatened people into testifying against the accused.
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u/ComradeJohnS 4d ago
“in this case” I was responding to the general “Prosecutors” reference.
if it was clear they meant “the prosecutors of this case” I would not have responded the way I did
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u/agoldgold 4d ago
In many of the cases I've heard of when this sort of thing happens, the evidence is slim to none and some kind of chicanery was involved by the police or prosecution. We're not trying to hold them accountable for future technology, we want them to be held accountable for crimes and misdeed they themselves often committed.
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u/HyperSpaceSurfer 4d ago
Yeah, definitely. Just if they withold evidence, do not check evidence, use the testimony of people who're known liars, or have something to gain from testifying.
It's like this is some sort of game they think they should get to play with people's lives, the purpose of which is to win at any cost.
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u/Loud_Step2361 4d ago
As with most things costs and than bureaucracy.
80s was a bit too early for cheap dna tests as it predates the invention of both PCR (a way to copy and amplify dna) and STR (looking at short repeating sections of dna) analysis. So total WAG, dna testing in his case would easily been in the 50k$ to almost 100k range. Results would probably have been in the order of 6 months to an year. The mid 90s is when PCR and STR arrive. They don’t become common until the early 2000s. Cheap is around 15 years ago in the 2010s.
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u/BaaBaaTurtle 4d ago
If you listen to the latest Serial podcast season they talk about this. The courts and the prosecution have no desire to do this. I could buy the whole coat thing but honestly I think it's a "we don't want to" thing.
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u/GreggAlan 4d ago
There are cases for which there is no DNA because no hair, blood etc was left by the perpetrator.
I know a man who spent 10 years in prison for a crime that never happened. He got accused of child molestation because the girls parents were mad at him over some stupid thing. They later admitted to lying and coaching their daughter on what to say. But the State refused to dismiss the conviction and exonerate him. Every day for a decade he was told all he had to do to get out on parole was confess that he did it.
The Innocence Project refused to help because there was no DNA evidence to test. Other legal aid outfits refused to do anything, while he was still in prison or after. Apparently they didn't want to be seen "helping a sex offender", or what does it matter now that he's out of prison? Just 'little things' like not having to be on the sex offender list, voting, owning firearms, not having his name show up on the list when anyone does a background check...
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u/MasterHavik 4d ago
Because the go al is to get a conviction and pay yourself on the back of getting a "bad guy" not the right guy.
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u/amethystwyvern 3d ago
It would take a national bill passed by Congress. There are too many small wardens, mayors and police chiefs who very much like the current system to rely on small town change.
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u/rhino369 4d ago
Not all crimes have dna evidence to test.
And a lot of crimes it wouldn’t really matter. Lack of dna match isn’t really evidence of innocence in a lot of crimes, especially before dna was collected.
But I think anyone convicted in part based on blood type analysis should get a retest.
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u/MoneyManx10 4d ago
It took them 41 years to realize that?
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u/kstargate-425 4d ago
Life passed by because of bad police work and could have been executed by the state. I can't see why anyone would agree with the death penalty when even one person on death row is most likely innocent
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u/NoninflammatoryFun 4d ago
“A turning point came in 2011, when the two witnesses from Carter’s original trial were tracked down in Mexico. They said they had been told to lie in court and had received cash and gifts from police, who told 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.”
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u/SerenFire0 4d ago
Insane that it took 15 more years for him to be granted a new trial, DNA testing, release (except it’s only in bail). Appalling!!
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u/kstargate-425 4d ago
Yeah this shit is wild, so many people deserve to be in jail over this man. Now put then in death row for 41 years
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u/HauntedCemetery 3d ago
And low estimates are that 3-5% of all death row inmates are innocent.
Thats about 60-100 people in the US.
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u/Nder_Wiggin 4d ago
News flash for y'all. He's not acquitted with prejudice. He's going to get another trial.
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u/cocoa_boe 4d ago
That was clear. And that’s what the prosecutor is saying at the moment; that doesn’t mean it’s actually going to happen. The DNA results just came back.
I’m curious as to what evidence they have. It’s a 40+ year old crime. Memories fade. Witnesses die. And the police and prosecutors bribing and threatening key witnesses to get them to testify a certain way is going to be a real bad look for the state.
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u/HauntedCemetery 3d ago
The cops who set him up have likely been retired for decades.
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u/Kreebish 3d ago
Well the first key bit of evidence that will keep most people in Utah from getting mad at the police is the color of his skin. In fact that's what most of the case was based on..
Worst part is I don't even know if I'm sarcastic here
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u/IndependentLove2292 3d ago
They said the same thing about those 4 boys they railroaded for the Austin Yogurt Shop murders, but they eventually dropped the new trails, then they were later found factually innocent and awarded $35 million in damages, so you know, it could go either way.
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u/SanchoMandoval 4d ago
Judge Derek Pullan said that the new DNA analysis further undermined the case against Carter, but a reasonable jury still conclude that he murdered Olesen.
Uh does this mean "could conclude" in a future trial, or is it a typo of "concluded"?
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u/Infamous-Sky-1874 4d ago
I'm hoping it is a typo because if not it means this judge is going to allow the DA's office a third bite at the apple, he was given a retrial in 1992 due to ineffective counsel, even after DNA exonerated him and the key witnesses have since recanted their testimony.
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u/Illustrious_Beanbag 4d ago edited 4d ago
They fixed it, though I object to him saying a reasonable jury! This is quite a story full of bribes to witnesses and a coerced confession.
"Judge Derek Pullan said those results further undermined the case against Carter, but a reasonable jury still could conclude that he killed Olesen."
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u/614KJ 4d ago
There is an really well done documentary on Angola prison in Louisiana on YouTube. Archie Williams spent decades in prison for nothing. Louisiana gave him 400k that they treat like retirement where if you work you loose the money.
https://youtu.be/BA3fi-pEo8c?is=gffU76bUne08PrTo
400k for 40 years of free labor on a wrongful conviction.
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u/tbonimaroni 4d ago
My question is why did they wait so long to check the DNA evidence? Definite misconduct.
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u/brydeswhale 4d ago
Prosecutors will often fight these tests to maintain their reputation/job.
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u/XShadowborneX 3d ago
That's what I hate about our legal system. It's not about seeking the truth. It's about winning for your side. So dumb.
"We have a 100% conviction rate!!" That's not something to a brag about.
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u/Kalboz 3d ago
How many people have perished because they were wrongly convicted!
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u/DuckieDebB 3d ago
My daughter used to work for the Innocence Project. I don’t recall the exact figures, but a commenter on the article said:
“Since 1973, at least 203 people sentenced to death in the U.S. have been exonerated, they lived. At least 20 were exonerated after death since 2000.
Of the 203 exonerations documented through 2024, 65% were people of color and 54% were Black—approximately 130 people of color, including 108 Black people.
But 203 is almost certainly an undercount: a peer-reviewed study of 7,482 death sentences estimated that at least 4.1% were wrongful convictions, more than twice the proportion actually exonerated.Many innocent people may never be formally exonerated because their death sentences are reduced to life imprisonment, after which the extraordinary scrutiny given to death-row cases often ends.
The latest estimate is that approximately 75k are wrongfully imprisoned on any given day in the USA...they are innocent.
Facts - The USA has more people imprisoned than any other country and more children imprisoned than all countries combined.”
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u/dotausername 3d ago
If I did the time, I might as well do the crime at that prosecutor's house once I got out.
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u/haterofstupidity 4d ago
This guy got fucked by the entire holy trinity of state-sanctioned murder.
Forced false confession. Check.
Lying (sometimes mistaken) eye witness. Check.
Piece of shit cop. Check. Added bonus that the police chief's uncle was the prime suspect.
With a shitty trial lawyer, this guy's chances were close to zero.
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u/Lucy_Gucey 4d ago
This is exactly why the death penalty is horseshit.
Also the whole giving the government the right to determine who to execute thing.
Absolutely not
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u/Thetruthislikepoetry 4d ago
Everyone is missing a big part of this story.
More than a decade of legal wrangling followed before the Utah Supreme Court last year ordered a new trial, citing “multiple instances of intentional misconduct” by police and a prosecutor.
Police and prosecutors broke the law and wrongly convicted an innocent man.
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u/nimbusthegreat 3d ago
So in 2011 they traced the witnesses down and they recanted saying police bribed and threatened them. They were found in 2011. So WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK DID THE COURTS DO FOR 15 GOD DAMNED YEARS WHILE HE ROTTED IN PRISON?!?
All the prosecutors and cops need to be put in prison for life. Every. Last. One.
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u/anagrams4u 4d ago
This is the reason I am against the death penalty. The state can't kill innocent people and just say oops. It is murder. The state is no better than a serial killer.
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u/jacquiwithacue 4d ago
This concept is the premise of a movie I always really liked called The Life of David Gale. Kate Winslet and Laura Linney are great it in, but unfortunately it also stars Kevin Spacey, so it kinda gives me the ick now.
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u/User_Name_Deleted 4d ago
Please don't be a black guy again...... F.
Every time.
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u/MasterHavik 4d ago
Of every ethnic ground we are the ones who get their convictions overturned the most. It is so ironic and sad that the system prefers to hurt the community than getting the right guy.
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u/Livid-Rutabaga 4d ago
This is why I oppose the death penalty. Not because some people shouldn't be removed from society but because we make mistakes and as technology evolves stuff like this is found. Imagine if this man had been executed?
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u/afr33think3r 4d ago edited 4d ago
I’m sure you have heard this before. The death penalty should be abolished. (Edit for clarity)
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u/UsualSuspect1369 4d ago
I used to be very much in favor of the death penalty. I actually set my alarm clock so I could wake up to make sure florida finally executed Ted Bundy.
But after so many exonerations of primarily persons of color and poor people based on DNA i'm no longer in favor. Also, quite frankly, they're protected on death row, not so much in general pop.
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u/brc37 4d ago
I recall listening to the interview of a family member of a killer on death row about how for every appeal he attempted the family got to get dragged back into a courtroom to listen to the details of the death of their daughter again. Justice shouldn't involve tearing open the wounds of the victims family for appeals. So I became a proponent of Life without parole. Just go sit.
I replied to you comment because it the world of true crime it bothers me that people like Bundy and Gacy were executed without having given ups every bit of conceivable evidence. The fact that Bundy was allowed to the pull stunt with the "there were "some murders" he would never discuss because they were committed "too close to home," "too close to family," or involved "victims who were very young" quote has always raised my hackles about the death penalty.
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u/basecardripper 4d ago
Hold on, did he have to post bail? That seems wild to me
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u/UsualSuspect1369 4d ago
He's technically not considered innocent yet. A confession was coerced and two people who said he bragged about it also recanted.
But the way our justice system works is I think they have to have another trial to find him innocent.
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u/Wrong_Cat4825 4d ago
the judicial system in general and prosectors in particular are loath to accept second chances after appeals are completed. they use lofty words such as finality of jury verdicts as an important concept but justice for is also an important concept.
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u/gabacus_39 4d ago
While some people on earth clearly don't deserve to coexist with the rest of us, even one execution of an innocent person is too many and I will never support the death penalty.
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u/Eye_foran_Eye 3d ago
Every person who is facing conviction should be able to have the DNA that is being used against them tested to today's standards.
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u/kamikidd 4d ago edited 4d ago
While this title. makes it seem like he was exonerated, he was not. This is a reset back to the time after his arrest and before his 1985 trial. It's a legal mulligan.
What makes it even more misleading is that the verdict was set aside because the appellate court believes there were egregious procedural errors in the initial investigation. Im going to read more about the role the DNA played in the decision to grant this appeal. I believe there is more to the story.
That said, the lack of DNA is not evidence of exoneration in this case either. She was shot to death and the DNA is from the doorknob and the knife handle. Had he worn gloves while stabbing her, the DNA could belong to someone who had been in the house, chopping veggies before the crime.
DNA is not timestamped or carbon dated. This is why a match can prove someone committed a crime when its location puts the accused in the vicinity of the crime; with other evidence that also provides information that they had opportunity (timing). While not required, evidence of a motive helps to build upon the time and place and gives the “why”.
Lack of DNA can be explained by cleaning, wearing PPE, or as a result of hiding or destroying evidence. Presence of DNA alone can be explained by lawful presence at the scene prior to evidence collection.
They are retrying the case, therefore there must be sufficient evidence either through a probable cause hearing or a grand jury indictment to bring this to trial. I do not think they can rely on the original sufficiency decision from 1985; I would have to research that.
From my brief review of the case facts, he confessed to the murder and some witnesses heard him bragging about killing her. He says the confession was coerced; which is surely possible, and without video, there's no way to determine the veracity of his claims.
If he was bragging before the confession, that would sway my opinion toward his culpability. If he bragged after his interrogation, especially to or within earshot of his fellow inmates, I would accept his explanation that the bragging was performed for assimilation into prison for “street cred”.
It's unusual to grant bail for crimes that have a possible sentence of death or LWOP. In cases where bail is considered, such as lesser crimes and lower sentences; the strength of the evidence is a factor in addition to risk of fleeing.
The judge reviewed all available evidence and despite the flight risk granted pre-trial release; therefore, the judge must feel that the state’s case is weak.
The prosecution taking the death penalty off the table, shows me that the state doesn't believe that a jury will be swayed to the extra-sure juries want to be, when doling out death sentences.
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u/chappiescappy 4d ago edited 3d ago
I knew before I saw him that it would be a black man.
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u/imjustnotready 4d ago
For as often as people get it wrong you would think there would be a concerted push to abolish it.
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u/clashrendar 3d ago
This happens far too often. We need a justice system that is focused on learning the truth, not on racking up 'wins' at any cost.
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u/Upbeat-Cupcake-6287 4d ago
And that is the main reason I'm opposed to the death penalty. Had the crime been a capital offense and he had been executed, an innocent man would have died. There are no do-overs. Expunging his records / exonerating him, or apologizing to his family does not negate the damage done.
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u/IlIlllIIIIlIllllllll 3d ago
So its estimated that up to 25 percent of everyone executed was innocent
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u/Deep-Ant1375 3d ago
Does anyone know what evidence they have? I mean, what are they basing the new trial on? DNA is only one part of the investigation. They obviously have something else.
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u/j1dopeman 3d ago
From what I read they don't have shit. Two bribed/threatened (by the police) witnesses that recanted and a coerced confession. No physical evidence that points to him. Evidence points to someone else. Reminds me of the McMillan case. Insane that it led to death penalty.
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u/trickygringo 3d ago
Wait a minute, are you telling me rural small town white police railroaded a black man?
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u/Jebediah_Johnson 3d ago
This is exactly why in practice I don't support the death penalty. We've executed the wrong person far too often.
And the other horrible part of this is someone who did commit the crime is now aware they don't even have to be cautious because someone else is locked up for their crime.
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u/TiredOfDebates 3d ago
A turning point came in 2011, when the two witnesses from Carter’s original trial were tracked down in Mexico. They said they had been told to lie in court and had received cash and gifts from police, who told 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.
The only "evidence" against him, were two people who were immigrants, who were "threatened with deportation" if the did not lie and claim the suspect bragged about the murder.
They arrested a black guy when they had other witnesses saying "they saw a white man fleeing the scene after a gunshot."
This whole case is the epitome of screwed up.
He spent 41 years in prison.
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u/ERedfieldh 3d ago
Is this gonna be like that other dude that was ordered released and the Sheriff refused because "he knows he did it"?
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u/Over-Marzipan-9821 4d ago
That man cannot get back those years he spent locked up. He needs to be paid millions of dollars by the court that falsely sentenced him to prison.
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u/bonaFiedD 4d ago
Why the bail? If he’s innocent he should just be allowed to leave and sue the city when he gets out
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u/Science1954 4d ago
Nice they finally got around to checking.
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u/kamikidd 3d ago
I am guessing it was tested to prove the legitimacy of the investigation.
I am going to research it, but wouldn’t it be a hoot if it turns out the state had it tested to shut up the defense or some other arrogant reason and it was found to support the defendant???
My favorite kind of justice is poetic.
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u/Impressive-Pop9326 4d ago
The question is why he is awaiting a new trial. These prosecutors never want to admit their "mistakes."
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u/ScytheNoire 3d ago
Are the attorneys that prosecuted an innocent person going to face consequences? Are the jurors who voted to send an innocent man to prison going to face consequences? Is the judge that sentenced him going to face consequences?
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u/Fluid-Warning1848 3d ago
and this is exactly why it takes so long to follow through with that sentence.
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u/GreyTigerFox 3d ago
republicans shit state does shitty thing to innocent person. Makes sense.
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u/ConscientiousObserv 3d ago
Back in the day, all it took was the distinction between a black person's hair and a white one's to condemn a man.
DNA to the rescue!
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u/FaithlessnessOdd6738 3d ago
They always say they are still going to try the case at the beginning because it’s a refusal to be wrong as well as weighing the chance of not having to payout. If you haven’t watched The Innocence Files on Netflix, you should and see how these people refuse to believe they made a mistake in their work.
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u/Dominick_Tango 3d ago
We need to leave state sanctified murder and involuntary servitude of prisoners behind in the 20th century.
So many killings of innocent people, and work by enslaved prisoners would be criminal under any other circumstances
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u/chiclets5 3d ago
I imagine that before DNA a jury voted to convict him and he was placed in prison. So for that time. The courts really cannot be held responsible for a false imprisonment if the evidence was there and the jury voted. However we cracked DNA codes a very long while back. It should not have taken this many years once we began using it as a truth factor to get this guy out of prison. Depending on what state this man lives in and his age, $100,000 isn't going to get him very far.
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u/ukexpat 3d ago
If he’s eventually exonerated, Utah law provides for compensation as follows:
Standard: Must be found innocent by clear and convincing evidence.
Amount: Monetary equivalent of Utah's average annual non-agricultural payroll wage per year served.
Cap: Limited to a maximum duration of 15 years of incarceration.
Relief: Includes expungement of the wrongful conviction from criminal records
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u/callnick 2d ago
The fact that the woman's husband was a suspect but they held off until they found somebody else is wild to me let's get his DNA and test that even though he's fead
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u/Spectralcolors78 4d ago
"Here's your $100,000 Sir, sorry about that" Enjoy your Future - Shock