Man on Utah’s death row for 30 years gets new hearing

Man on Utah’s death row for 30 years gets new hearing

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A man who has been on death row in Utah for more than three decades will get a new hearing after raising questions about the testimony used to convict him of murder.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports the Utah Supreme Court in an opinion Friday found that testimonies by two witnesses were inconsistent at times and “tainted as a whole” in the case against Douglas Stewart Carter.

A jury in 1985 convicted Carter of killing 57-year-old Eva Olesen — the aunt of a former Provo police chief. He was sentenced to death.

Carter’s attorneys asked the state Supreme Court for a new hearing, claiming police paid two witnesses’ rent and instructed them to lie about the financial help.

A district court judge will hold an evidentiary hearing on the case.