SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Two Utah death row cases tied to murders in the 1980s are seeing new movement, with one facing a possible retrial and another caught in an indefinite delay of appeals.
The decades-old cases raise questions about whether justice should take this long.
The Cases
In February 1985, in Provo, Utah, police found murder victim Eva Olesen’s body with stab wounds and a bullet to the head inside her home. Douglas Carter was later arrested for Olesen’s murder and sentenced to death despite no physical evidence linking him to the crime scene.
One year later, in February 1986, Maurine Hunsaker went missing in Salt Lake County. Hunsaker was found brutally murdered in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Ralph Menzies was arrested and tried for murder after evidence tied him to the crime. He, too, was found guilty and sentenced to death.
MORE | Douglas Carter:
In each of these decades-long cases, both men arrested for the crimes have maintained their innocence…