Chris Tapp: Idaho; Bulletin: Two Tapp tapes found in defense files - prosecution asks court to reconsider a prior ruling which allowed one of Tapp’s petitions for post-conviction relief to move forward.Deputy Prosecutor John Dewey has asked Stephens to reconsider his ruling. “The court’s decision allows the petitioner to hide behind the discovery documents without providing any reliable evidence to support his contentions,” Dewey wrote......... "A hearing on the motion to reconsider has been scheduled for Nov. 22. On Friday, Public Defender John Thomas filed a motion that seeks to focus the court on the evidence in the case and whether Tapp received effective assistance from his original lawyers. Thomas argued that one of the three polygraph tapes still hasn’t been found, and the tapes that were turned over weren’t properly labeled, so Tapp’s attorneys probably didn’t know what was on them. Thomas argued the court’s focus should be on what those videos show and whether there is sufficient evidence to keep Tapp locked up." Reporter Bryan Clark; Post Register; October 19, 2016.

"Two of three polygraph videos that Chris Tapp’s defense alleged weren’t turned over by prosecutors have been discovered in files possessed by the State Appellate Public Defender’s Office. Following the discovery of the tapes, the Bonneville County Prosecutor’s Office has asked Judge Alan Stephens to reconsider his prior ruling, which allowed one of Tapp’s petitions for post-conviction relief to move forward. Tapp is serving a sentence of 30 years to life for the 1996 murder of 18-year-old Angie Dodge. Tapp was convicted based on his confession, but in recent years a slew of outside experts have produced reports arguing that Tapp’s confession was false, the result of police coercion. A report commissioned by prosecutors also suggests that former detective Jared Fuhriman gave untruthful testimony when he told jurors that Tapp knew numerous details of the crime that only the killer would know, when virtually all of those details had been revealed to Tapp by police. Tapp has filed numerous appeals and petitions for post-conviction relief — civil proceedings that argue the original trial was so flawed that Tapp ought to either be granted a new trial or released. All those efforts have failed. Tapp has two petitions for post-conviction relief pending. One has sought to DNA test previously untested crime scene evidence. DNA testing has been completed, and none of the samples at the crime scene so far tested — including semen left on Dodge’s body and skin cells left on a teddy bear Tapp allegedly used to muffle her screams — match Tapp. There will be an evidentiary hearing on that petition early next year. The other petition alleges that prosecutors didn’t turn over three tapes of polygraph sessions during which Tapp was psychologically coerced into confessing. Tapp won a small victory in that petition last month, when Stephens ruled the tapes likely weren’t turned over. But following the discovery of two of those three tapes in old defense files, Deputy Prosecutor John Dewey has asked Stephens to reconsider his ruling. “The court’s decision allows the petitioner to hide behind the discovery documents without providing any reliable evidence to support his contentions,” Dewey wrote......... A hearing on the motion to reconsider has been scheduled for Nov. 22. On Friday, Public Defender John Thomas filed a motion that seeks to focus the court on the evidence in the case and whether Tapp received effective assistance from his original lawyers. Thomas argued that one of the three polygraph tapes still hasn’t been found, and the tapes that were turned over weren’t properly labeled, so Tapp’s attorneys probably didn’t know what was on them. Thomas argued the court’s focus should be on what those videos show and whether there is sufficient evidence to keep Tapp locked up. “No objective trier of fact, after seeing the polygraph videos and hearing expert testimony, could come to any conclusion other than that Tapp should be acquitted,” he wrote. “He is an innocent man who falsely confessed due to police coercion.” Thomas asked Stephens “in the interest of justice” to vacate Tapp’s conviction and release him from prison, and then allow prosecutors to decide whether they want to refile charges." http://www.postregister.com/articles/chris-tapp-coverage-news-daily-email-todays-headlines/2016/10/19/two-tapp-tapes-found#