WEBVTT - #129 Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions - Chris Tapp 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:05.160 Welcome to Wrongful Conviction, False Confessions. I'm Laura and I writer. 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:06.280 And I'm Steve Drisen. 0:00:07.080 --> 0:00:09.240 Today we're going to tell you about an Idaho man 0:00:09.320 --> 0:00:12.720 named Chris Tap. Chris was just twenty years old when 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:17.239 he endured a mind bending, twenty five hour interrogation that 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:21.759 transformed him from an innocent into a confessed murderer. Fortunately 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:25.680 for Chris, he found an indomitable champion in the victim's mother. 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:29.240 She convinced police to use a revolutionary new method of 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:33.360 DNA identification to exonerate Chris Tap and find her own 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:34.160 daughter's killer. 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:44.360 There are certain special people you meet in your life, 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:47.760 people that I like to say are more evolved than 0:00:47.800 --> 0:00:52.080 the rest of us, people that really inspire you. And 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:55.040 Carol Dodge is one of those people. It's one of 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:58.440 the few times in my career as a lawyer where 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:02.920 someone from the victimim's family has asked me to investigate 0:01:02.960 --> 0:01:07.280 an injustice and for a crime victim who was so 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:10.600 invested in Chris's guilt that she wanted him to get 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:14.160 the death penalty, to evolve to a place where she 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:17.880 was thinking he might be innocent. That just blew me away. 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.720 How was it that a lay person could look at 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:26.759 these interrogation tapes and see all of the problems, all 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:30.680 of the coercion, all of the leading questions, all of 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:35.440 the fact feeding when law enforcement officers on the Idaho 0:01:35.520 --> 0:01:38.480 Falls Police Department couldn't see it themselves. 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:41.600 And it shows that wrongful convictions affect more than just 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:45.480 the defendants. It's also the victim's families, the survivors of 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:49.800 these horrible attacks, who are being fed aligne about an 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:51.520 innocent person being guilty. 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:54.120 It wasn't easy. She had help from a lot of 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:59.000 other people, but it was her persistence and her desire 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:02.360 for knowledge that ultimately changed the course of this case. 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:09.000 Kristap's story starts in Idaho Falls, a town of about 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:12.560 one hundred thousand people in southeastern Idaho, about two hours 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:17.280 north of Yellowstone National Park. Idaho Falls is a beautiful place. 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:20.239 There's mountains on the horizon and the Snake River cut 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:24.080 straight through town. Gorgeous though it may be, the town 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:29.160 was wrecked by terrible ugliness nearly twenty four years ago. 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.760 In June nineteen ninety six, Idaho Falls resident Angie Dodge 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:36.000 was eighteen years old. She graduated from high school the 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:39.320 year before. A head of schedule with honors, and life 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:42.480 was just beginning for her. She was working two jobs, 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:47.399 taking a few classes at Idaho State becoming independent. In fact, 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:50.640 Angie had just recently moved into her first apartment, the 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:53.840 upper floor of a little frame house on Eye Street, 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:58.160 where she lived by herself. But on the morning of Thursday, 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:01.160 June thirteenth, Angie didn't sh up for her day job 0:03:01.280 --> 0:03:04.600 at a local beauty supply store. A friend stopped by 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:06.840 her apartment to make sure she was okay, but by 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:11.480 eleven o'clock that friend was frantically dialing nine to one one. 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:15.239 She'd found Angie Dodge lying face up on her bedroom floor, 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:19.560 half naked and clearly dead. Angie's head was against the 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:22.760 bedroom wall with her legs outstretched. Next to her, there 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.000 was a basket of stuffed animals, including a teddy bear, 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:30.680 specked in blood. She'd been stabbed fourteen times and her 0:03:30.720 --> 0:03:31.560 throat had been cut. 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:36.760 She was nearly decapitated. Most of the apartment was undisturbed, 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:41.200 so all of the activity between the assailant and Angie 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:44.680 took place in her bedroom. The crime scene did not 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:49.200 suggest a prolonged struggle. Angie was six feet tall, and 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:53.240 she had a reputation of not taking guph from anybody. 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:57.240 I mean, she would have been the kind of victim 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:00.000 to have fought back, and she did have a few 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:04.120 defensive wounds on her arms and her wrists. The police 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.320 theorized that she had been attacked in her sleep and 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:11.720 quickly overwhelmed. But who would want to hurt Angie Dodge. 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:15.800 The police assured Angie's family, including her mom Carol, that 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:19.760 the killer had left damning evidence behind. Seaman left on 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:24.640 Angie's body yielded a full DNA profile, but police ran 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:28.520 the profile through the state and national DNA databases and 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.200 got no hits. They compared it against Angie's male friends 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:35.920 and family members, still no hits, and as summer turned 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:39.240 to fall and the temperatures dropped, the case went cold too. 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:43.960 The case stayed cold until January nineteen ninety seven, when 0:04:44.000 --> 0:04:47.440 an acquaintance of Angie's named Ben Hobbs, was arrested in 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:51.640 Nevada for a knife point sexual assault. Police started questioning 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:54.640 Ben about whether he was involved in the attack on Angie, 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:58.000 which seemed to be similar, but Ben insisted he had 0:04:58.080 --> 0:05:01.479 nothing to do with Angie Dodge, and eventually lawyered up, 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:05.560 so instead police turned to his friend Chris Tap to 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:07.440 see if they could get some dirt on Ben. 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.359 At the time, Chris was twenty years old, maybe a 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.800 year or two older than Angie. In fact, he and 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:16.279 Angie and Ben were part of a young group of 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:18.920 people who hung out on the trails along the Snake 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:20.839 River and partied from time to time. 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.080 This group of friends called themselves the river Rats crew, 0:05:24.600 --> 0:05:27.000 and police figured that if one of the river Rats 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.840 had attacked Angie, then the others would know about it. 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:32.960 Not only was Chris Tap a river rat, but one 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:36.120 of the police officers had known Chris for years. He 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:39.599 figured it'd be easy to use their trusting relationship to 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.799 make Chris give up whatever he knew about ben Idaho Falls. 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:47.719 Police decided to question Chris, and here come the interrogations, 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:52.120 not one, not two, but eventually nine of them, spread 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:55.679 out over nearly four weeks, for a total of twenty 0:05:55.720 --> 0:06:01.160 five hours of questioning. The statements that police get ar chaotic, confused, jumbled, 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:05.279 and the tactics police used, well, they're a recipe for 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:12.839 wrongful conviction. It all began for Chris on Tuesday, January seventh. 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:17.039 The officer starts by asking Chris about Ben's possible role 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:21.320 in Angie's death. Chris denies knowing anything about it, over 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:22.279 and over again. 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:24.039 I mean, I'm going to be straight up and cheerful 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:26.640 with you. If I did anything know about this, I 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:29.880 would say what I do on them. That's honest, true, 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:30.880 not lying. 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:33.679 But the police have an unsolved murder on their hands, 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.960 and Chris's possible knowledge about Ben Hobbs was the only 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:41.200 lead they had. They try to create leverage with Chris 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:45.040 by implying that he's withholding crucial information and that there 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:48.599 could be consequences if the investigators don't get what they need. 0:06:49.240 --> 0:06:52.520 The deeper they get into the interview, the more police 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:55.880 up the pressure. They tell Chris that he has to 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:57.760 tell them something about Ben. 0:06:58.040 --> 0:07:00.520 Now, this officer was not a stranger to Chris. He 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:04.800 was a school resource officer whom Chris had known throughout 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:08.279 his life. And one of the tactics this officer used 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:12.240 was the false friend technique, suggesting that he was there 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.880 to help Chris to see him through this problem. I 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:16.360 should be. 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:19.880 Saying this, but kind of close to you. I've got 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:22.360 to know not one of these crimes. 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:24.760 I could go out to do that, and the police 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.880 suggests that if Chris tells them something about Ben, then 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:30.960 they'd pull some strings, that even though he's getting dragged 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:34.800 into the investigation, they'd protect him. He wouldn't have anything 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:37.120 to worry about. It's a theme they'd go on to 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:39.000 repeat again and again. 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:41.280 I will keep everything a kid. 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:45.880 Chris continues to insist that he doesn't have anything to 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.840 tell them, and eventually the cops let him go home. 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:52.800 But a few days later, on Friday, January tenth, the 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:56.920 police are back. They still suspect that Chris is withholding 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:01.600 information to protect his friend. They need more leverage, so 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.760 they give him a polygraph test and they tell him 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:06.120 that he flunked it. 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:10.240 It was extremely painful to watch because you see someone's 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:15.360 will being broken over and over and over again by 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:19.800 these two interrogators, primarily their friend, the school resource officer 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:21.200 and the polygrapher. 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.160 They also tell Chris that by covering for his friend, 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:28.480 Chris is making himself an accessory to murder, and the 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:31.720 police start warning him that the law treats cover ups 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:35.559 the same as the crime. In other words, Chris Tap 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:37.640 is now facing the gas chamber. 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.800 Are you looking at it? The possibility getting charged with 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:42.640 the murder one which. 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:44.080 Max penalty is dead. 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.520 Middle A generally is life a person foot no row, 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:50.400 and save your time period. 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.080 You've got to save your mind. The thread of death 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:54.320 penalty is in the air. 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:58.280 Chris is terrified, and so he starts to make things 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:01.880 up in order to please Isn't interrogators and save himself 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.840 from a death sentence. He tells a story in which 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:08.840 he'd heard Ben Hobbes admit to killing Angie, and the 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:11.880 cops eat it up. By now they can't wait to 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:14.840 take Ben down for rape and murder, with Chris as 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:16.880 the star member of their team. 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:20.559 The school resource officer tells Chris at one point that 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:26.240 he really wants Chris to help in nailing Ben Hobbes 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:33.960 so that he could drop kick Ben Hobbes through the goalposts. 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:42.760 Of life toxic masculinity, anybody, huh? Artifact detectives keep pushing 0:09:42.760 --> 0:09:45.840 for more details, and they help Chris out by giving 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:49.320 him hints about what they think happened. They tell Chris, 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:52.559 for example, that Angie had been stabbed with a knife. 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:56.840 Pretty soon Chris agrees and says he heard Ben describe 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:00.760 using a knife. But even as Chris regurgitates these details. 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:05.600 He's freaking out, crying hard, terrified that whatever he says 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:09.480 won't satisfy his interrogators, that instead of helping police drop 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:13.600 kick Ben, he'll end up being the football. But the 0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:16.920 cops still don't seem convinced, and they start asking whether 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:20.400 the DNA left on Angie's body might belong to Chris. 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:24.200 He rallies, take my DNA. It ain't going to be me. 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:29.760 He says, I was never inside Angie's apartment. The police 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:33.000 let Chris go home again, but they still think he's 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:36.200 not telling them everything he knows about Ben Hobbes, So 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:40.720 the next day, January eleventh, they arrest Chris and charge 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:44.840 him as an accessory who helped cover up Angie Dodge's murder. 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:49.120 And that threat or suggestion of the gas chamber. That's 0:10:49.200 --> 0:10:51.520 becoming realer and realer. 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:54.240 To Chris pretty soon. The promise of help gets more 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:58.640 real too. Chris gets a lawyer, and that lawyer negotiates 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:02.840 an immunity agreement. Under the deal, Chris would escape charges 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:06.960 if he provides information about who raped and killed Angie Dodge. 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:10.760 But it's got to be information that the police will believe, 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:14.040 and the police tell him that in order to go free, 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:17.760 they expect him to say he was present during the attack. 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:21.920 In their words, get us up close. If he does that, 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:25.000 they suggest he can go home. They'll leave him alone 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:29.120 and we can help you. Now, Chris has no choice 0:11:29.200 --> 0:11:33.480 but to tell lies, placing him inside Anngie's bedroom, and 0:11:33.559 --> 0:11:36.600 as police keep pushing, Chris has to take the story 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:40.920 further and further. By the very end, he agrees that 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:44.400 he slashed Angie with a knife and held her down 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:45.679 while Ben raped her. 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:46.920 A hat. 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:52.520 That Angie dodge across the right breast with the knife is. 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:55.600 Even though Chris now has agreed to say he was 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.840 directly involved, he can't get the story right. He doesn't 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:03.520 know basic facts like the layout of Angie's apartment or 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:07.320 what room the attack occurred in. In fact, at one point, 0:12:07.440 --> 0:12:10.400 the police take Chris to Eye Street so he can 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:13.480 point out Angie's home and walk them through the crime scene, 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.400 but he can't even tell them which house she lived in. 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:19.520 He guesses that she lived on the corner when she 0:12:19.679 --> 0:12:21.520 really lived in the middle of the block. 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.920 This should have been a huge red flag to these officers. 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:27.760 He had previously told them that they won't find his 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:31.640 DNA there because he'd never been to Angie's apartment. But 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:36.360 they are stuck in the Chris Tap box and they 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:37.800 can't get out of it. 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.000 They refuse to get out of it, even when a 0:12:41.040 --> 0:12:43.280 big problem emerges about a week later. 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:47.160 It's a problem we've seen in case after case. By 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:51.160 January eighteenth, the police have done DNA testing and the 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:55.040 results are back. Their DNA from the crime scene does 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:58.720 not belong to either Ben Hobbs or Chris Tap. 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:01.800 Neither of them could have been Antie's rapist, and the 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:05.120 police accept that Ben Hobbs had nothing to do with 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.800 this crime. But Chris, on the other hand, he had 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:12.560 confessed to being there, and why would anyone confess unless 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:17.520 they were guilty. The police decide they'll never know whose 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:20.880 DNA was left at the crime scene, but they stick 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:25.280 to their belief Chris was involved. They conclude that he's 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:28.800 been protecting the identity of the real rapist this whole time. 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:33.560 They're furious, and the immunity deal is yanked off the table. 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:38.080 Chris Tap is charged with first degree murder and sexual assault, 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:43.559 and the county prosecutor announces that he'll seek the death penalty. 0:13:44.320 --> 0:13:47.840 At Chris's trial, prosecutors show the jury one brief clip 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:52.520 from the interrogation Cherry picked from twenty five hours of videotape. 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:58.040 This excerpt makes his confession seem spontaneous and voluntary, and 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:01.800 on May twenty eighth, nineteen nine, ninety eight, Chris tap 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:17.120 is convicted of the rape and murder of Angie Dodge. 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:20.600 This is where the hero of our story first comes 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:26.000 in Angie's mother, Carol Dodge, a heartbroken but ferocious woman. 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:29.760 Carol was tortured by the thought that one of Angie's 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:33.120 attackers was still free, the one who had raped her, 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:37.600 and Carol believed Chris knew who the rapist was, so 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:40.720 when the time came for sentencing, Carol Dodge begged the 0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:44.120 judge to give Chris the death penalty. When the judge 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:47.880 gave him life in prison instead, Carol broke down, sobbing 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:53.320 to her justice hadn't been served. Carol Dodge was right, 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:57.160 justice hadn't been served, but the failures here were more 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:01.640 profound and troubling than even she imagined at first. For years, 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:06.000 an unanswered question remained at the heart of Angie Dodge's case. 0:15:06.560 --> 0:15:09.480 Whose DNA had been left on her body? 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:14.560 The investigation had stalled, and Carol's frustration was going through 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:18.680 the roof into One day, about twelve or thirteen years 0:15:18.880 --> 0:15:23.520 after Angie's death, Carol decided to take the matter into 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.800 her own hands, and the first thing she wanted to 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.320 look at were the videotapes of Chris TAP's interrogation. 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:32.920 It's the first time she's seen these tapes from start 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.120 to finish, and as she watches them, she's growing angrier 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:40.040 and angrier because those tapes are making her think that 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:44.400 Chris Tap might be innocent. Carol starts doing research online 0:15:44.440 --> 0:15:48.800 about false confessions, and whose name comes up but Steve Drisen. 0:15:49.240 --> 0:15:51.640 She picks up the phone and calls them. 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:54.160 Now, I'll never forget this. I was sitting at my 0:15:54.280 --> 0:15:59.320 desk one afternoon. It was February twenty second, twenty thirteen, 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.840 and the phone rank and on the other end was 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:07.120 Carol Dodge. Now I knew who Carol Dodge was. I 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:10.920 had read about the cap case. I had seen Carol 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:15.200 on an episode of Dateline, but I had never received 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:20.120 a call from a crime victim before asking for my assistance, 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:26.240 she said, would you mind reviewing and analyzing these interrogation videos? 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:29.640 Who could say no to Carol Dodge. 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:33.280 Carol sent the videotapes and Steve watched them all. He 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:38.000 wrote an expert report deeming Chris Tapp's confessions unreliable. But 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:41.520 even as Steve and Carroll worked together, others were starting 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:45.600 to raise questions too. An advocacy group called Judges for 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:50.680 Justice started pushing to reopen the investigation. Two former FBI 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:54.080 agents reviewed the case and concluded that the Idaho Falls 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:59.840 police investigation was deeply flawed, and an internationally recognized expert 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:04.600 concluded that Chris TAP's polygraph had been a sham. The results, 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.520 he said, weren't worth the paper they were written on. 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:12.399 Things were starting to congeal around the idea that Chris 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:17.199 was wrongfully convicted. Chris TAP's own attorneys and representatives of 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:21.440 the Idaho Innocence Project were beginning to push the innocence 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:23.200 narrative in court. 0:17:24.080 --> 0:17:27.479 What the team really needed was more forensic testing to 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.560 show that Chris Taps DNA was nowhere in Angie Dodge's bedroom. 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:35.879 Under previous Idaho law, defendants like Chris could only seek 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:40.760 DNA testing during the year immediately following conviction, but that 0:17:40.920 --> 0:17:45.240 restriction was lifted in twenty ten. And Chris's team jumped 0:17:45.280 --> 0:17:49.040 at the opportunity. They had additional testing done on some 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:52.199 other things from Angie's bedroom, that Teddy bear with the 0:17:52.240 --> 0:17:55.359 blood on it, and some articles of her clothing. What 0:17:55.560 --> 0:17:59.520 was found the same DNA profile as the person who 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:03.600 had left his seamen. We now had multiple DNA hits 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:06.639 to the same guy. While we didn't know who that 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:14.040 guy was, we did know he wasn't Chris Tap. Based 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:17.560 on all these new discoveries, Carol Dodge becomes convinced that 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:21.040 Chris Tap is innocent, and she starts bringing pressure to 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:24.040 bear on the local police department to release Chris and 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:28.680 find her daughter's actual killer. In May twenty sixteen, Chris 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:32.000 TAP's lawyer filed a post conviction petition alleging that new 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:34.960 evidence had cast doubt on the reliability of TAP's confession, 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:39.680 and pretty soon an enormous collection of forces was pushing 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.800 the state of Idaho to do the right thing. Judges 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:46.399 for Justice was releasing expert reports and calling for Chris's release, 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.160 The Idaho Innocence Project was talking about the new DNA results, 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:54.000 and the Idaho Falls Post Register, the local newspaper, was 0:18:54.080 --> 0:18:58.080 hammering the prosecutor to release Chris. One local journalist became 0:18:58.119 --> 0:19:02.080 particularly invested in the case. His name is Brian Clark. 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:06.720 I'm the opinion editor of the Post Register in Idaho Falls, 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.960 and I'm a former reporter there. I first heard about 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:13.960 the case shortly before Judges for Justice started releasing their 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:18.760 reports about it. My editor approached me and said, I've 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:20.760 got a gift for you. It's not going to feel 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.199 like a gift, but I promise it is. And he 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:26.800 introduced me to the Dodge case and the Tap conviction. 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:30.280 Even the Innocence Project in New York had joined the fight, 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.600 but no one was pushing harder than Carol Dodge. It 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:38.320 takes an army sometimes, and she was the General Lisimo. 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:41.080 An example of her tenacity you can actually see in 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:44.359 the architecture of the police station. There are a pair 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:47.400 of doors that are in between the sort of main 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.880 lobby area and the area where the detectives and other 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:53.840 police are. The reason they were put in is that 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:56.800 Carol Dodge would show up at the police station, walk 0:19:56.880 --> 0:19:59.440 right past the front desk and into the chief's office 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:03.199 and start demanding that he you know, what are you 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:05.879 doing to find my daughter's killer? And so they finally 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:07.800 had to put indoors to keep her from doing that. 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:09.560 They're referred to as the Carrol Doors. 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:13.919 Eventually, prosecutors decide that they're not yet ready to exonerate Chris, 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:17.080 but they would agree based on this new DNA evidence, 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:21.320 that Chris should be granted immediate release. So in twenty seventeen, 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:25.760 Chris tap walked out of prison, not yet exonerated, but 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:28.959 a freeman after spending twenty years behind bars. 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:31.439 You see all the evidence stack up and it becomes 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:35.240 clear the guys spent twenty years behind bars for something 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:39.360 he didn't do, and that did keep me up at nights. Frankly, 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:41.240 after working on it for years, I did not think 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:44.480 it was going to be remedied. So it was really 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:47.320 great to watch them take those handcuffs off. That made 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:49.560 me really happy. The first two people to give him 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:52.760 a hug was his mother, Vera and Carol. They hugged 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:57.399 and they were both crying, and it was just really remarkable. 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:01.960 It was a bittersweet moment. Carol Dodge was relieved that 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:05.920 Chris had been released, but she was also concerned would 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:09.080 the Idaho Falls police and prosecutors now give up the 0:21:09.119 --> 0:21:12.399 search for Andy's killer. There was no way she was 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:13.679 going to allow that to happen. 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:19.879 Usually, in these cases, the DNA profile eventually gets matched, 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:22.960 and it's the identification of the real killer that leads 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:26.760 to full exoneration. But this wasn't happening for christ Tap. 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:30.240 The single DNA profile left at the scene was run 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:34.119 again and again through the National DNA database, but it 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:37.080 kept coming up dry. You see, profiles get added to 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:39.760 that database only when people are arrested or charged with 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:43.200 certain serious offenses. Clearly, whoever had done this to Angie 0:21:43.280 --> 0:21:46.439 Dodge hadn't reoffended, at least not at the level of 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:49.159 severity that would lead to his DNA being included in 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:53.199 that database. But that didn't stop Carol. She wasn't going 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:56.960 to rest until that mystery DNA was identified, and she 0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:01.760 wanted Idaho police to try a brand new identification technique 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:14.520 called genetic genealogy. Genetic genealogy is basically the use of 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:19.920 DNA evidence in combination with traditional genealogical information. If you 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:22.919 can identify whose DNA it is, at least you might 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:26.480 be able to identify that person's family tree. This technique 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.000 was recently used to solve the Golden State killer case 0:22:29.119 --> 0:22:32.960 in California. Now in twenty fourteen, police had already given 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:36.280 genetic genealogy a shot in the case of Angi Dodge. 0:22:36.880 --> 0:22:39.280 Using the DNA profile from the crime scene and an 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:43.679 ancestry dot com database, they obtained a partial DNA match 0:22:43.960 --> 0:22:47.560 to a man in New Orleans, a possible suspect, a 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:52.200 man named Michael Ustri. They became more and more interested 0:22:52.240 --> 0:22:54.480 in Ustri after it turned out that he was a 0:22:54.480 --> 0:22:58.120 filmmaker with a flair for the macabre. He had recently 0:22:58.119 --> 0:23:01.720 created a short film called Murder Rebelia about the market 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:04.920 for collectibles related to real life killings. 0:23:04.560 --> 0:23:06.880 And when he told the officers that he had been 0:23:06.960 --> 0:23:09.639 to Idaho at some point around the time of this 0:23:09.800 --> 0:23:14.760 crime on a camping trip, their expectations soared even higher. 0:23:14.960 --> 0:23:18.119 Police interviewed Michael Usri and got his full DNA profile, 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:21.119 but it didn't match the DNA left at the scene. 0:23:21.200 --> 0:23:24.840 Film noir or not, he wasn't guilty. As for everyone 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:27.800 else in the Usri family tree, police found themselves out 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:30.879 of leeds again. Every other male in the family was 0:23:31.000 --> 0:23:35.640 ruled out too young, too old, never been to Idaho Falls. 0:23:36.040 --> 0:23:39.320 But again, Carol Dodge didn't give up In twenty eighteen, 0:23:39.359 --> 0:23:41.960 she found the genetic genealogist who had cracked open the 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:46.320 Golden State killer case, doctor C. C. Moore. Carol pressured 0:23:46.359 --> 0:23:50.360 police to hire doctor Moore, and they did. Doctor Moore 0:23:50.400 --> 0:23:52.720 started looking through obituaries to fill in the blanks in 0:23:52.760 --> 0:23:54.440 the USRI family tree, and she. 0:23:54.480 --> 0:23:56.720 Was able to take samples that were found at the 0:23:56.760 --> 0:24:01.719 crime scene and compare them to genealogical DNA database That 0:24:01.920 --> 0:24:05.480 led her to a family tree of individuals who could 0:24:05.560 --> 0:24:07.719 be related to the person who left the DNA at 0:24:07.720 --> 0:24:10.600 the crime scene. And only with the help of an 0:24:10.640 --> 0:24:13.520 obscure record that they found in a library, they were 0:24:13.560 --> 0:24:15.800 finally able to track down Brian Drips. 0:24:16.040 --> 0:24:19.439 Brian Dripps is a biological Uzri who had been adopted 0:24:19.480 --> 0:24:22.760 by his stepfather and grew up as part of another family. 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:26.600 By the time his name came up in late twenty eighteen, 0:24:27.160 --> 0:24:30.560 Drips was fifty three years old, and it turned out 0:24:30.680 --> 0:24:33.760 he used to live in Idaho Falls, right across the 0:24:33.840 --> 0:24:35.520