Carter, now 71, was sentenced to death in 1985 for murdering Eva Olesen, an aunt of the Provo police chief at the time. No physical evidence tied him to the crime scene, but a jury convicted him, a Black man, largely on the strength of a signed confession he says investigators coerced out of him.
The state Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year after finding misconduct by investigators in the original case. Prosecutors have since said newly analyzed DNA evidence does not match Carter, a development that helped clear the way for his release on bail while the case moves forward. Olesen's family objected to the decision, according to court filings.
For Carter, the ruling means walking free after spending nearly four decades behind bars awaiting execution for a crime he has always denied committing. Olesen's relatives see it differently. The case they thought was settled generations ago has reopened, with no new suspect identified and old wounds resurfacing in public. The coerced confession claim, paired with the absence of physical evidence, now sits at the center of whatever comes next in court.