Claims extracted
23
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
13%
3 of 23 hedged
("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
66/100
New York Post's corrections and
hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Crime & Law
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Utah prosecutors are dropping their plan to seek the death penalty in an upcoming retrial of a 71-year-old man who spent decades on death row for a 1985 killing in which newly analyzed DNA evidence did not match him.
asserted
evidence → drop → him
Douglas Stewart Carter was sentenced to death in 1985 after a jury found him guilty of murdering Eva Olesen, the aunt of a former Provo police chief.
asserted
him → sentence → chief
The state Supreme Court last year ordered a new trial, citing misconduct by investigators.
asserted
Court → order → investigators
Carter remains in custody and maintains his innocence.
asserted
Carter → remain → innocence
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, who was white.
asserted
who → link → Olesen
Judge Derek Pullan set a bond hearing for Monday, when defense attorney Neal Hamilton said he expects his client to be released pending an eight-week trial set to begin next July.
asserted
client → set → trial
“It’s not time to try to save face and continue with a tainted prosecution,” Hamilton said.
asserted
Hamilton → ’ → prosecution
“They know they don’t have a case.
asserted
they → know → case
The moral obligation is to dismiss.”
asserted
obligation → dismiss → ?
Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray said in a Wednesday court filing that the state was withdrawing an earlier notice that it intended to seek the death penalty.
asserted
it → say → penalty
He said results of a DNA analysis received Tuesday excluded Carter as a possible match to blood found on a doorknob and material found on the handle of a knife used to stab Olesen, who was also shot.
asserted
who → say → Olesen
Gray said the state planned to reexamine its decision to move forward with the case.
asserted
state → say → case
But the prosecutor added that the new evidence “does not necessarily exonerate Carter of the murder.”
asserted
evidence → add → murder
Gray noted the handgun used to shoot Olesen was never found and Carter confessed.
asserted
Carter → note → Olesen
Members of Olesen’s family had testified during a hearing last month that Carter could pose a safety risk to them if he were released.
uncertain
he → testify → them
In a Thursday statement, the family said they “will not comment on the guilt or innocence of any individual” while prosecutors decide how to proceed.
asserted
prosecutors → say → individual
“The latest developments have raised difficult questions and once again left our family without the sense of resolution we had hoped for after so many years,” the family said in the statement released by the Utah County Attorney’s Office.
asserted
family → raise → Office
Carter has said his signed confession was coerced.
asserted
confession → say → ?
The two witnesses he allegedly bragged to — 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.
uncertain
they → brag → Carter
His defense attorneys also say witnesses saw a white man fleeing the crime scene and that an investigator suppressed evidence pointing to other suspects, including the victim’s husband, Orla Olesen.
asserted
investigator → say → husband
They allege prosecutors were close to filing charges against the husband, but a Provo police lieutenant asked them not to, so he could continue investigating.
uncertain
he → allege → them
Carter was identified as a suspect soon after, the document alleges.
asserted
document → identify → suspect
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.
asserted
hands → die → back
The Aporia
