A 71-year-old man who had spent decades on death row for a 1985 murder was granted bail by a Utah judge after prosecutors claimed that recently examined DNA evidence did not match him.

That same year, a jury found Douglas Stewart Carter guilty of killing Eva Olesen, the aunt of the Provo police chief at the time, and sentenced him to death.

Due to investigator misconduct, the state Supreme Court last year ordered a new trial. Carter has insisted on his innocence and claims he was forced to sign a confession.

Although there was no tangible evidence connecting Carter, a Black man, to the crime scene, the jury found him guilty based on his confession and two witnesses who claimed he boasted about killing Olesen, a White woman.

Defense attorney Neal Hamilton said Carter will be placed in an extended-stay accommodation near the family of his son, who was adopted by another family as an infant and didn’t learn about the conviction until years later. Carter will also need therapy to deal with his extended incarceration, Hamilton said.

“It’s not just as simple as, ‘Let’s let him go,’” Hamilton said. “He’s being released with 41 years of state-induced trauma and the effect it will have on him is very real.”