Idaho City to Pay $11.7 Million to Man Wrongfully Convicted in 1996 Killing

The town of Idaho Falls, Idaho, has agreed to pay $11.7 million to a person who spent 20 years in jail after he was wrongfully convicted of murdering an 18-year-old lady in 1996, in line with a settlement settlement authorized by the Metropolis Council this week.

The person, Christopher Tapp, was cleared in 2019 of the homicide of Angie Dodge of Idaho Falls after the slain teen’s mom sought to have investigators take one other have a look at the case, in mild of advances in DNA evaluation and the usage of genetic family tree.

The brand new proof related one other man, Brian Leigh Dripps Sr., to the crime. Mr. Dripps finally confessed to the killing and pleaded responsible in February 2021 to first-degree homicide and rape. He was sentenced in June 2021 to life in jail.

In a letter dated Monday — three days earlier than the Metropolis Council authorized the fee — Mayor Rebecca Casper apologized to Mr. Tapp for the town’s position in his conviction and incarceration, saying she hoped that the settlement and apology would assist convey closure.

“Along with the settlement, the town pledges to assessment its insurance policies, procedures, and coaching (particularly associated to custodial interrogations) and to revise them, as wanted, to stop any recurrence of what occurred in your case,” Ms. Casper wrote.

In a press release quoted by The Related Press, Mr. Tapp mentioned: “No greenback quantity might ever make up for the over 20 years of my life I spent in jail for crimes I didn’t commit. Nevertheless, the settlement will assist me transfer ahead with my life.”

On June 13, 1996, Ms. Dodge had been sleeping when Mr. Dripps broke into her residence in Idaho Falls, raped her after which almost decapitated her, the authorities mentioned. Her killing went unsolved for a few 12 months, till a buddy of Ms. Dodge’s was arrested in an unrelated rape that additionally concerned a knife.

Mr. Tapp, who was 20 on the time, was pals with the person and had emerged as a suspect himself. Representatives of the Innocence Mission, which works to overturn wrongful convictions, mentioned that investigators had threatened to pursue the dying penalty in opposition to Mr. Tapp and supplied him immunity if he confessed to killing Ms. Dodge, which he did and later tried to resign.

Mr. Tapp at first adamantly denied that he had any concept who had killed Ms. Dodge. However all through the course of a 30-hour interview course of unfold throughout a number of weeks, investigators wouldn’t settle for his story. Mr. Tapp’s authorized advocates would later say that police officers had psychologically manipulated him into confessing.

Regardless of DNA proof collected from the crime scene that didn’t match his personal, Mr. Tapp was convicted of rape and homicide in Could 1998 and sentenced to life in jail.

The case regained momentum greater than a decade in the past when Ms. Dodge’s mom, Carol, sought the involvement of the Idaho Innocence Mission. The group is a part of a community of authorized advocacy nonprofits affiliated with the Innocence Mission, a nationwide group primarily based in New York that additionally grew to become concerned within the case. Not satisfied that her daughter’s killer had been dropped at justice due to the shortage of a DNA match, Ms. Dodge had requested to see Mr. Tapp’s taped confession.

A genealogist who had been enlisted was capable of create a brand new DNA profile for the killer from proof collected on the crime scene. In accordance with an arrest warrant affidavit from 2019, a household tree of potential suspects led to Mr. Dripps, who had lived throughout the road from Angie Dodge in Idaho Falls on the time of her homicide however had moved to Caldwell, on the opposite aspect of the state. A discarded cigarette butt from Mr. Dripps matched the DNA proof taken from the crime scene, the affidavit mentioned.

Genetic family tree, which matches crime scene DNA to that of kin, has been credited with offering investigators with breakthroughs in lots of chilly instances, a majority of them yielding arrests. However Mr. Tapp’s case was the primary time that the method was used to clear a convicted killer’s identify.