7. River Rat: What leads to false confessions?

Bad People

BBC

True Crime

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2020

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Two friends knock on Angie Dodge’s door and find her lying on the floor. She had been raped, stabbed and her throat cut. The police arrive, take DNA samples from the scene and start rounding up suspects. Chris Tapp was 20 years old at the time and though his DNA did not match the crime scene samples, he was called in. A few questions turned into over 100 hours of interrogations and seven polygraph tests. By the end of it, Chris confesses to killing Angie – a crime he had no recollection of committing. On this episode of Bad People, presenters Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen discuss how you might end up confessing to a crime you didn’t commit. Warning: This episode contains strong language and references to sexual violence and murder. Archive credits: This episode contains audio from police tapes. Presenters: Dr. Julia Shaw and Sofie Hagen Producers: Louisa Field and Caroline Steel Assistant Producer: Simona Rata Music: Matt Chandler Series Editor: Rami Tzabar Commissioning Producer: Hannah Rose Commissioning Executive: Dylan Haskins Commissioning Editor: Jason Phipps Bad People is a BBC Audio Science Production for BBC Sounds #BadPeople_BBC

Transcript

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0:00.0	Newscast is the unscripted chat behind the headlines.
0:05.6	It's informed, but informal.
0:07.6	We pick the day's top stories and we find experts who can really dig into them.
0:12.4	We use our colleagues in the newsroom and
0:14.4	our contacts. Some people pick up the phone rather faster than others.
0:18.0	We sometimes literally run around the BBC building to grab the very best guests.
0:23.4	Join us for daily news chats to get you ready for today's conversations.
0:28.3	Newscast, listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.4	BBC Sounds. Sounds. BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:37.0	3-2-1.
0:38.0	Welcome to Bad People from BBC Sounds. This is the podcast that explores humanity's dark side.
0:47.0	I'm criminal psychologist Dr Julia Shaw.
0:49.0	And I'm Sophie Hagen. I'm a stand-up comedian.
0:52.0	In each episode Julia will sell us about a real criminal case
0:55.4	and then we use criminal psychology to make sense of it. So not only do we bring you
1:00.6	stories that fascinate us but we examine what they tell us about the human experience.
1:05.6	Note that like on most episodes of bad people, today we will be discussing extreme violence,
1:11.5	including murder and rape.
1:14.0	On today's show, a grieving mother, lie detectors, and a questionable confession.
1:20.0	Ready for the story, Sophie?
1:21.0	I have never been more ready
1:24.2	off we go and so they would tell chris
	...

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