If you’ve already taken our wrongful conviction quiz, you know that there are many ways an innocent person can end up behind bars. Take Chris Tapp, who was convicted of first-degree murder and rape in 1998 and spent 22 years in prison—despite pre-trial testing that excluded Chris as the source of DNA left at the crime scene.
Chris Tapp in New York City. Photo by Cory Chalumeau.
Idaho’s case against Chris, age 20 at the time, was rooted in police-driven coerced statements that included crime scene details police fed to him. Over multiple days, police used interrogation techniques proven by scientific and legal experts to be psychologically coercive and capable of producing false confessions.
Chris, who was represented by John K. Thomas, the Idaho Innocence Project, and the Innocence Project, was released in 2017, and was fully exonerated in July. To learn more about the mechanisms that put him and countless other innocent people in prison, we've put together a reading list that includes a range of memoirs, novels, and academic texts about the wrongful conviction experience. Take a look at the guide, start reading, and make sure to tweet @innocence with your favorite books!
Started in 1992 as a legal clinic at Cardozo School of Law, the Innocence Project is now an independent nonprofit, affiliated with Cardozo, that exonerates the wrongly convicted through DNA testing and reforms the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice. www.innocenceproject.org
