A 71-year-old man, Douglas Stewart Carter, who has spent 41 years on death row in the United States after being convicted of murdering a woman, has been released on bail after prosecutors said newly analysed DNA evidence did not link him to the crime.

Carter was convicted of killing Eva Olesen in Provo, Utah, in February 1985 and sentenced to death, despite maintaining that he was innocent and that a confession he signed during police interrogation was coerced.

According to the BBC on Tuesday, the Utah Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Carter last year, citing misconduct by investigators.

A judge on Monday granted Carter bail despite objections from Olesen’s family. He is required to wear a GPS monitor while awaiting the new trial.

Olesen, the aunt of a local police chief, was stabbed multiple times and shot in the back of the head at her home.

Carter, who is originally from Chicago, was living with his mother in Utah at the time. Court documents showed that police suspected him of killing Olesen during a robbery.

Carter fled Utah after believing he was a suspect in an unrelated case and was later arrested in Nashville, Tennessee, where he signed a confession during interrogation.

However, there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime scene.

He was convicted by a jury based on the confession and testimony from two witnesses who claimed he had bragged about the killing.

The two witnesses later said in 2011 that they had been instructed to lie in court, given cash and gifts by police and threatened with deportation if they did not testify against Carter.

Carter’s lawyers also said witnesses had seen a white man fleeing the scene and alleged that an investigator suppressed evidence pointing to Olesen’s husband, Orla Olesen, as a possible suspect.

Orla Olesen, who died in 2009, had told police that he found his wife dead in their home.

The victim’s stab wounds were believed to have been inflicted with a knife from the couple’s kitchen, which was found near her body. The gun used in the killing was not recovered.

Prosecutors this month said DNA analysis had excluded Carter as a possible match to blood found on a doorknob and genetic material recovered from the knife handle.

Carter’s release was opposed by Olesen’s family.

Theresa Olesen, Eva Olesen’s daughter-in-law, told Monday’s bond hearing that her family had “serious concerns” about Carter’s release and said he should remain in custody pending a new trial.

“By golly we were hoping for a concrete match,” Olesen said of the DNA analysis. “It doesn’t mean he wasn’t there.”

Carter’s defence lawyer, Neal Hamilton, called for the case to be dismissed.

“If the state of Utah had their way, he would have been executed 15, 20 years ago before we discovered the misconduct,” he told Associated Press.

The newly established Edo state special criminal court on Tuesday sentenced four persons to death over the abduction of a woman at Vegetable market along Airport road in Benin city, Edo state.

Justice Aigbona Momodu, the trial judge convicted the four defendants on a 11-count charge bordering on kidnapping, conspiracy, armed robbery, cultism and unlawful possession of firearms

The defendants are Marvellous Isaac, Wisdom Michael, Rufus Emete Michael and Gift Raphael.

The abduction of the victim took place on June 14, 2026.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Momodu held that he had no choice than to impose the maximum sentence stipulated by the law on the defendants.

The judge sentenced the defendants to seven years in prison each for count one.

Isaac, the first defendant, was sentenced to death by hanging or administration of lethal injection for counts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

The first defendant was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for count 10 and life imprisonment for count 11.

Wisdom Michael, the second defendant, was sentenced to death by hanging or administration of lethal injection for counts 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

Rufus Emete Michael, the third defendant, got death by hanging or administration of lethal injection for counts 2,3,6, and 7.

Raphael, the fourth defendant, got death by hanging or administration of lethal injection for counts 2, 4, 6, and 8.

The judge also ordered that the pump action and cartridges retrieved from the defendants should be seized by the Federal Government and destroyed by the police within 30 days.

This is the maiden judgment of the Edo special court since it was established in June.

In June, Daniel Okungbowa, the chief judge of Edo state, constituted a special court to prosecute cultism and kidnapping cases in the state to tackle violent crimes.

Osawaru said the special court was established following the request of Monday Okpebholo, governor of the state.

Operatives of the Abia State Police Command have recovered 28 human skulls and other human bones from forests in the Isuochi and Nneato communities of Umunneochi Local Government Area of the state.

Maureen Chinaka, the command’s spokesperson, who disclosed this in a statement, said the discovery followed a security operation conducted on Sunday, September 27, 2026.

According to Chinaka, the operation was carried out under the command’s “Operation No Hideout for Criminal Elements in the State, which she said is aimed at flushing out suspected criminals from the state.

The operation, she said, involved the Violent Crime Response Unit, Anti-Kidnapping Unit, Anti-Cultism Unit, Intelligence Response Unit, Rapid Response Squad and Isuochi Police Headquarters.

Chinaka said the operatives conducted intelligence-led raids on suspected criminal camps in forests around Umuaku, Isuochi, and another camp at Nneato, also in Isuochi.

She said the suspected criminals fled when the police arrived, leaving the camps deserted.

“Upon arrival of the Command tactical operatives at the camps, the suspects ran. The criminal camps were subsequently scattered,” Chinaka said.

She said the remains were discovered while the operatives searched the suspected kidnappers’ camps.

“Total of twenty-eight (28) human skulls and bones, which we suspect are kidnap victims, were recovered,” she said.

She added that the command suspected the remains belonged to people who had been kidnapped and taken into the forest, but said investigations were ongoing.

No arrest has been made in connection with the discovery as the suspects reportedly fled before the arrival of the police.

“Investigation is ongoing, while monitoring of the area continues, and efforts are high to catch the suspects who are on the run,” Chinaka said.

The police said the operation formed part of its wider efforts to dismantle suspected criminal camps in the state.

The Umunneochi area has previously featured in security operations targeting suspected kidnappers, with authorities in previous operations reporting the recovery of decomposing human remains in parts of the local government area.

The Abia State Police Command urged residents to report information that could assist security agencies in tackling criminal activities in the state.