A 71-YEAR-OLD MAN who was convicted of murder and spent decades on Utah’s death row was released on Monday after a report showed he did not match DNA evidence linked to the crime, his defence said.

Douglas Carter was sentenced to death in 1985, after being found guilty of murdering Eva Olesen, an aunt of the local police chief at the time, in Provo, Utah. He was again sentenced to death after a 1992 retrial.

A judge ordered Carter be released on bail on Monday while he awaits a new trial.

Carter has maintained his innocence, claiming that his signed confession was coerced.

His defence said that physical evidence and eyewitness accounts indicated that a white man murdered Olesen, but Carter, a Black man, was convicted.

“The State stole 41 years of his life and subjected him to the horrors of being on death row for more than 40 years, but tonight he is finally home,” Carter’s defence attorney Neal Hamilton said in a statement to AFP. “It is a great day.”

The state Supreme Court ordered a new trial last year, citing “serious misconduct” by investigators.

No physical evidence tied Carter to the crime scene and his conviction was based on his confession and witness statements from Epifanio Tovar and his wife Lucia.

According to court documents, Carter said his confession was coerced by police officers.

In 2011, the Tovars said they had been told to lie in court and police had paid their rent, phone and utility bills. They also said the police threatened them and their son with deportation.