Idaho agreed to compensate the wrongfully convicted. Now it’s time to prevent tragedy

For most people, being locked up for a crime they didn’t commit is the stuff of nightmares. But for some Idahoans, that nightmare is a brutal reality. To make matters worse, the state of Idaho for decades did nothing to help those proven innocent once freed from prison.

Chris Tapp knows this reality all too well. He was accused of the 1996 rape and murder of Angie Dodge in Idaho Falls, despite no physical evidence connecting him to the crime.

Chris falsely admitted guilt after being subjected to nearly 60 hours of harsh interrogation tactics, which included lies, threats and seven sham polygraphs which were administered not to get to the truth but rather as additional false evidence ploys to coerce a confession. The police also fed Chris nonpublic details about the crime and then falsely represented that the details originated with him.

Chris was ultimately convicted based on this false confession and spent nearly half of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit. The real perpetrator remained free. If not for the videotaped interrogations analyzed by Angie’s mother, Chris’ innocence may have never been revealed.

This March, Gov. Brad Little signed the Idaho Wrongful Conviction Act into law, paving the way for Chris and others who have been exonerated to obtain just compensation from the state that wrongfully imprisoned them.

I am immensely grateful for the dedication of the Legislature in passing this monumental bill, especially Sen. Doug Ricks, R-Rexburg, who led the charge for two years — making the issue a priority in his last year in the House and one of his first acts as a newly elected senator.

Within just a few months, the Idaho Wrongful Conviction Act, which was also pushed this year by former Idaho Falls city councilor and Idaho Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, has already been working as intended. Chris was among the first exonerees to claim compensation under this new law alongside fellow exoneree Charles Fain.

The Innocence Project has found that, on average, wrongfully convicted people have spent about 14 years in prison before being exonerated.

Idaho should build upon its recent accomplishment by passing reforms to prevent innocent people from being convicted in the first place.

While compensation provides some justice once an innocent person has been exonerated, a wish even greater than personal recompense is that society learns from these tragedies and does its best to ensure that they never happen again.

Idaho lawmakers should pass legislation to require that all interrogations be video recorded in their entirety, and they should ban the use of deceptive tactics in interrogations.

We know that the causes of wrongful convictions are plentiful and significant, and that taking measures to prevent them not only benefits innocent people but bolsters the integrity of our criminal legal system as a whole.

By passing the compensation law this year, Idahoans have shown that they care about addressing the damage that a wrongful conviction causes.

Now it’s time for our legislators to take action to stymie the flow of innocent people into prisons so that someday, the Idaho Wrongful Conviction Act can become obsolete.