Salt Lake attorney argues incompetence

PROVO — With eloquent and well-spoken arguments, a Salt Lake attorney argued Tuesday that he is incompetent to defend a man on death row.

Mark Moffat, who represents convicted killer Douglas Stewart Carter, is asking, even begging, to be allowed off the case.

"I submit to the court that I have absolutely no formal post-conviction training of any kind," Moffat told 4th District Judge Lynn Davis. "I am not qualified to do this work. I do not understand, nor do I have the training in, complex procedural rules that come into play in capital cases in state post-conviction (hearings)."

Carter, 52, was convicted and sentenced in 1985 for the murder of 57-year-old Eva Olesen, the aunt of a former Provo police chief.

Carter has appealed his case to state and federal courts numerous times and has been denied nearly as often. He's back in 4th District Court for a second post-conviction relief hearing, asking that his death sentence be reconsidered.

Carter sat handcuffed at a desk and flanked by three guards from the prison as he listened to Moffat lambaste himself.

"When claims are not effectively raised, and when not raised at the right time and in the right way, people get put to death," Moffat said. "I can't live with that, judge. I want somebody involved in the case who has the time and resources available to do it."

To that, Davis said: "Though you claim expertise, incompetence, and not being trained, you're the most articulate and eloquent incompetent attorney I've ever had before me."

"Thank you," Moffat said, "but that is no substitute for what needs to be done in this case."

Prosecutors argued that these concerns should have been raised months earlier and that allowing the attorneys, who knowingly took the case, to withdraw would delay the case even more.

"At this point, there is strong interest in the finality of this case," assistant Utah Attorney General Thomas Brunker said. "Delay will be the result if the court grants the resolution."

Olesen's son, Gary, said he is frustrated with the continual delays and a justice system that has protected his mother's convicted killer for so long.

"Had (Carter) been a guest, he would have had a pleasant visit with a lovely woman, who would have (talked to him) about her nearly born granddaughter," Gary Olesen read from a statement.