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Politics290 outlets ran this2 min read

Utah judge orders death row inmate's release on bail after DNA tests

A 71-year-old man will be freed after decades of incarceration for a 1985 killing.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published Updated
Utah judge orders death row inmate's release on bail after DNA tests

What this story says

  • A Utah judge ordered a 71-year-old man released on bail after he spent decades on death row.
  • The man was convicted of a 1985 killing, but prosecutors said newly analysed DNA evidence does not match him.
  • The victim's family has objected to the man's release.
  • No right-rated outlets reported on this story.

Who covered it

Left 28%(49)Centre 55%(95)Right 17%(30)

Percentages are shares of the 174 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 116 of the 290 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

42/100

Craft

61/100

Hype

20/100

290 sources · methodology

Missing from the right

Only 30 of the 174 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

A reader who follows the right would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

A Utah judge has ordered a 71-year-old man to be released on bail. He had spent decades on death row for a 1985 killing. Prosecutors stated that newly analysed DNA evidence did not match him. The victim's family objected to the release.

Coverage comparison

What the coverage left out

None of the left-rated or centre-rated digests mentioned the name of the man ordered released on bail, nor the name of the victim.

Tags:#DeathRow#DNAEvidence#CriminalJustice#Utah

Coverage settled. We checked this 20 times and stopped on 4 Oct 2026, 08:15. The figures above are what it finished at.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

49 rated outlets

  • All twelve left‑rated digests report that a Utah judge ordered a 71‑year‑old man, who spent decades on death row for a 1985 killing, to be released on bail after newly analysed DNA evidence did not match him. Several digests note that the victim’s family objected to the release.
  • The Salt Lake Tribune digest adds that the judge will reconsider the case after 41 years, while the other eleven digests repeat the headline phrasing about the bail order and DNA mismatch. None of the digests provide statements from prosecutors, defence lawyers or the court beyond the bail decision.
  • The digests do not mention any conditions of the bail, the identity of the prosecutor handling the case, the defence counsel’s response, or any broader legal implications. They also omit any discussion of the case’s impact on Utah’s death‑penalty system or future DNA testing policies.

Centre

95 rated outlets

  • All centre‑rated outlets reported that a Utah judge ordered a 71‑year‑old man, who had spent decades on death row for a 1985 killing, to be released on bail after newly analysed DNA evidence did not match him.
  • Several digests added that the victim’s family objected to the release; The Record named the victim as Eva Olesen, while KUTV and Internewscast identified the inmate as Douglas Stewart Carter (or Doug). All digests noted prosecutors said the DNA test excluded the inmate.
  • None of the centre digests provided the judge’s name, the bail amount, the specific court, or any commentary on the broader legal implications. Only one outlet gave the victim’s name, and no centre source quoted the defense, the prosecutors beyond the DNA result, or any official statements.

Right

30 rated outlets

  • The Washington Times, MY Northwest, Times of India, Daily Express, Globo, New York Post, Le Figaro, Origo, Kurier, Clarin, abc and Svenska Dagbladet all reported that a Utah judge ordered a 71‑year‑old man, who had spent more than four decades on death row for a 1985 murder, to be released on bail after prosecutors said new DNA testing did not match him.
  • The Washington Times and MY Northwest added that the victim’s family objected to the bail decision. Times of India said the Utah Supreme Court noted serious police misconduct, and Origo reported that police had paid witnesses to testify. Clarin mentioned that the man will be monitored with a GPS device and that his original confession was obtained under duress, while New York Post noted a pending new trial.
  • None of the right‑rated digests mention any estimate of the cost of the bail or the legal proceedings, and none discuss broader criminal‑justice reform or the prosecutor’s specific arguments or the identity of the victim beyond the name Eva Olesen in the Times of India piece.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Utah judge orders death row inmate's release on bail after DNA tests?
Of the 174 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 28% are rated left, 55% are rated centre, 17% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 290. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Utah judge orders death row inmate's release on bail after DNA tests left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 174 rated outlets on this story, 28% are rated left, 55% are rated centre, 17% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Utah judge orders death row inmate's release on bail after DNA tests biased?
Utah judge orders death row inmate's release on bail after DNA tests is one event reported by 290 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Utah judge orders death row inmate's release on bail after DNA tests?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Utah judge orders death row inmate's release on bail after DNA tests?
290 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
Why was the man ordered released on bail?
A Utah judge ordered the release on bail of a 71-year-old man who had spent decades on death row. This decision was made after prosecutors stated that newly analysed DNA evidence did not match him, casting doubt on his conviction for a 1985 killing.
Did the victim's family agree to the release?
No, the victim's family objected to the man's release. Despite their objections, the judge ordered the 71-year-old man to be released on bail after new DNA evidence emerged that did not match him.
How long had the man been on death row?
The man had spent decades on death row. Some reports indicate he had been incarcerated for over 40 years, having been convicted of a 1985 killing before the new DNA evidence led to his ordered release on bail.

Read it at the source

290 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

49
Show 41 more

Centre

95
Show 87 more

Right

30
Show 22 more

Not rated

116
Show 108 more

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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Utah Death Row Inmate Released | MediaBias News