Judges for Justice launch campaign to overturn Tapp conviction

A local group pushing for the release of convicted murderer Christopher Tapp held an open house Wednesday evening to debut a video they believe proves his confession was coerced. Tapp was convicted of killing Angie Dodge in June of 1996.

“What we see in this clip is a continuation of what we see through out these recordings,” says Dr. Charles Honts, a polygraph expert. “The police officer is using psychological, coercive tools to try and get a confession.When he says, ‘you’ve got to save your life,’ it is completely inappropriate.”

Retired Seattle Judge Mike Heavey has been reviewing this case for two years. Heavey works for free studying cases he considers wrongful convictions. He says the public must push for the Tapp conviction to be overturned and the county public defender, John Thomas, agrees.

Another factor that is being considered in the case is that both Tapp’s mother and the mother of the victim believe that Tapp has been wrongly convicted.

“There is not one spec of evidence on Angie, that belongs to Chris Tapp,” says Carol Dodge, the victims mother. “It belongs to one individual. And that individual has never been found.”

“He has spent nineteen years of his life already of his life in there and he shouldn’t have been there in the first place,” says Vera Tapp, Christopher Tapp’s mother.

“At the end of the day, Chris Tapp is and innocent man whose in prison. And justice requires that he be released,” says John Thomas, Tapp’s public defender.

Bonneville County Prosecutor, Danny Clark, has the power to start the legal process to revoke Tapp’s sentence. He has hired an independent investigator from Twin Falls to study the case and make recommendations.

If you’d like to see parts of the polygraph tests you can find the video shown at Wednesday’s open house at this link.