Greg Hampikian, a biologist, is speaking on speakerphone to Christopher Tapp, an Idaho State Correctional Institution prisoner. Tapp is currently behind bars for a murder he claims he didn’t do. Many other people believe he is innocent, including journalists, lawyers and former judges. Hampikian from Boise State University has been fighting for him since he was a student. “How’re you doing, Chris?” Hampikian begins. Tapp said gamely, “I’m having fun at summer camp.” “Although I know you… “I’m back in the hole”-solitary “There was mutual miscommunication between myself and someone else.” He mentioned that he is getting divorced from his wife.
Hampikian apologizes to Chris. It’s too much. “You’re aware that my offer is still valid. You can take any course you like. I’ll even pay the tuition. A pause. “You’re aware that the court has given us permission to continue with a DNA test. The court only allows us to test a small amount of DNA and it is up to us to choose the best one.
People are not evil to me, but they protect the story once they believe it.
Tapp, who was sentenced for murdering Angie Dodge (age 19) in 1998, has been serving a 25 year sentence. Tapp’s DNA was not found in the evidence. However, the jury and prosecutor believed Tapp’s confession.
Tapp has been assisted by Hampikian since more than twenty years. Hampikian holds joint appointments at BSU for criminal justice and biology. He collaborates with police and defense attorneys around the globe to help innocent people. Aimee Maxwell is the executive director of Georgia’s Innocence Project in Decatur. Hampikian founded it.
Hampikian advocated for Tapp to be exonerated using a controversial, new DNA method. He has also shown that DNA evidence can be misinterpreted or false in other cases, like the Amanda Knox case in Italy. He said, “Just cause it’s DNA does not mean it’s science”
Hampikian, 54-years-old, has a look that is a bit reminiscent of Bill Maher. However, he wears a beard and is friendly. Theology and religion: Scientists are more willing to give up their beliefs while theologians are prepared to die for them.
His long-term courtship in forensic science was multiyear. After conducting research in Australia on the Y chromosome and teaching at Clayton State University (Georgia), in 1993, Henry Lee, a criminologist, approached him. Lee wanted to know if science could help determine the sex of a person based only on saliva left at crime scenes. (It could.) Later, he was so taken by Calvin Johnson’s story that DNA exonerated him in 1999. Johnson had spent 16 years in prison in rape cases. Johnson helped him write Exit to Freedom. He says, “The idea of being able to free someone by giving them a little bit snotlike stuff was something that I found thrilling.”
Hampikian joined the Georgia Innocence Project’s board in 2002. In 2004, Hampikian relocated to BSU. There, he taught and did research in genetics. He also used DNA to exonerate at minimum 12 wrongly convicted Americans, Taiwanese, and Italians. He has also suffered losses. He was eventually executed for four clients.
DNA evidence is so powerful due to its solid scientific roots and statistical backing. The 13 places, or loci, that are most important to analyze in DNA evidence, are called loci. These loci represent the areas where human genetic diversity is extraordinary. Each locus has a “short tandem repetition,” which is a small amount of DNA repeated several times. There are many repeats at each locus, and the exact number can vary depending on the person. It can be anywhere from one to fifty. Two copies of each chromosome are given to us by our parents. The two numbers that make up each locus appear as peak on an electropherogram (a chart made by a genetic analyst).
It is extremely unlikely that two people will have identical pairs at any of the 13 loci. It’s like pulling on the handles of 13 slot machines each containing dozens symbols and hoping that they match up.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in an effort to reduce false matches, will soon issue new guidelines that call for at least 20 locations.
Because of its accuracy, DNA evidence is virtually impossible to disprove. In 2009, the National Research Council published a groundbreaking report that deemed most forensics to be unproven folk-wisdom. However, DNA was cited as the only true forensic science. Hampikian has been questioning this technology over the past few years, as have other geneticists. The polymerase-chain reaction, which can multiply small amounts DNA, has made it possible to detect DNA at levels hundreds of times or even thousands lower than the 1980s when DNA fingerprinting first became available. Investigators may even be able to obtain “touchDNA” from fingerprints left on glass or doors. Sometimes, 25-30 cells are sufficient.
False positives can be easily caused by this increased sensitivity. Analysts may detect DNA transfer from one person (or both) to another via an object or evidence.
Amanda Knox, a U.K. student, was charged with stabbing Meredith Kercher to her death in Perugia. Rudy Guede, a young man from the area, was accused of sexually assaulting Kercher and murder. His DNA was found on Kercher, as well his fingerprints, palm prints, and fingerprints were all overwhelming evidence. Italian prosecutors charged Knox and Raffaele sollecito with killing. Kercher was also charged with murder after DNA trace evidence of Sollecito was found on the clasp to a bra Knox owned. The knife Sollecito stored in his kitchen drawer had Knox’s DNA and Kerchers DNA on both the handle.
Hampikian reviewed all data and procedures in the lab for the defense. Hampikian observed that the bra clasp didn’t get collected until 46 days following the murder. He also noted that it wasn’t picked up by several crime scene investigators until they had photographed the position of the bra clasp. All this could have contributed to Sollecito getting DNA on the clasp. Knox’s DNA could be found on the knife handles, since she had used the knife in cooking. However Kercher’s DNA wasn’t enough to make it valid for testing.
Nine other distinguished geneticists signed Hampikian’s critique and it was made public. While he was analyzing the critique, Hampikian asked his students to mimic some of the Italian investigation. After lunch, five soda cans were collected from the BSU dean’s office and placed in separate evidence bags. After lunch, they removed five soda cans from the BSU dean of arts & sciences’ office and placed them in individual evidence bags. Hampikian and his group also searched for DNA below the FBI’s recommended minimum. They discovered DNA from one of the knife’s blades belonging to a staff member. However, the DNA was not found on the knife blades.
However, Sollecito was found guilty by an Italian court. They were sentenced to four years imprisonment, followed by release by an appeals court. Later they were found guilty. After reviewing the case with Italian DNA experts, an Italian high-court declared them both innocent.
An amalgamation of DNA from different suspects can make DNA analysis more difficult. Analysers can only look at the victim’s and perpetrator’s peaks with a small sample. They can see a multitude of peaks when they mix, but they don’t know which pair they belong to or from which source. The analysis becomes subjective at this point.
This has been confirmed by studies. Michael Coble, a Gaithersburg-based geneticist, proposed a scenario in which DNA from several individuals was found on a ski helmet left at a crime site after a string of robberies. Coble reached out to 108 labs nationwide to find out if the DNA from the suspect in the robberies had been included. Seventy-three out of 108 labs wrongly claimed the suspect’s genome was part the mix. Coble declares, “It’s a Wild West out There.” “Too many is left to analysts’ discretion.”
Hampikian did a similar study by using DNA evidence from real crimes: Kerry Robinson’s case. Robinson was a Georgian man who spent 20 years in prison for participating in gang rape. Tyrone White was identified as the victim’s attacker.
White’s DNA was found to match 11 of the 13 DNA alleles that were found in the DNA mix at crime scene. The victim did not have these alleles. White admitted his guilt and said that he had a grudge against Robinson. Robinson shared DNA from the victim’s corpse with two other alleles, Hampikian stated that Robinson was “absolutely out”.
Hampikian was accompanied by Itiel Dor, a U.K. psychologist. They asked 17 analysts to interpret the electropherograms. Twelve analysts excluded Robinson and four of them said they couldn’t draw a conclusion. Only one analyst said Robinson was in the mixture. Hampikian’s lab also tested four employees at a local news station to determine if they had any DNA in common with Robinson. One of the women, a white 26-year-old, had three.
Rodney Zell, Robinson’s attorney from Zell & Zell in Atlanta says that “Greg is fantastic.” He is an excellent witness and knows his stuff. A 15-year-old criminal conviction is difficult to overturn. Robinson’s appeal was thwarted by an appeals judge in the summer. Zell appealed the decision to Georgia’s Supreme Court. The case is still pending. Tyrone White is out of prison and has been released.
Hampikian asserts that “I don’t believe people can be evil.” But, once they believe in a story they will continue to protect it. Chris Tapp is calling him to explain why it was so difficult to reverse his conviction. Hampikian believes recent scientific breakthroughs in DNAforensics could allow him to be released.
Tapp was a friend and suspect to the Idaho Falls police. He was later released. Tapp was given immunity by police to reveal the identity of another assailant. Tapp was able to give them a few names over the next weeks. However, DNA proved each suspect out. Tapp was finally removed from his immunity and police leaned on Tapp until Tapp confessed. Tapp was said by police to have held Dodge’s arm down while another man assaulted or killed her.
Tapp’s lawyers will need to produce evidence at appeal. Familial DNA search is an option. Even if police are unable to match DNA from crime scenes to FBI’s national genetic database, loosening the criteria could result in a partial matching-possibly a relative to the perpetrator-which could be useful as an investigative lead. Civil rights advocates oppose this procedure, as it makes you a person of potential interest if you are related to an offenders. Maryland has banned the practice. It has worked in some cases, including the case of the Grim sleepinger, a Californian serial killer.
Angie Dodge’s case, Idaho Falls police searched the FBI database for DNA matches and found none. It is not clear if they also searched for partial matches. Hampikian suggested that they do a “genealogical scan.” Police ordered a forensics Lab to produce a profile based on 35 loci found at the crime site. After that, they obtained a subpoena allowing Ancestry.com (the largest genealogy company in America) to examine the profile.
One man, an unindicted Mississippi resident, was matched at 34 of 35 locations. The victim was too young to have been matched by the killer, although he had provided a cheek sample at the suggestion of his Mormon pastor. The police became interested in Michael Usry, Jr., the 36-year-old New Orleans, Louisiana-based filmmaker who had made gory murder films in Idaho and was passing through New Orleans at the time the murder took place in 1996. They were granted a court order in 2014 to take Usry’s DNA sample. However, the results of the test disqualified him. John Thomas, Tapp’s lawyer, said that he is investigating legal options to expand the family search. (While Tapp’s case is being investigated by John Thomas, Usry has announced plans for a film.
Thomas obtained court permission last spring to explore another avenue. A laboratory would perform “touch DNA” testing on swabs taken from Dodge. Tapp’s DNA will not be found in the samples, which would prove that Thomas was not responsible for her death. Hampikian stated, “We will continue to attack state theory piece-by-piece.”
He fears that the court will reject the evidence. They have done so in appeals before. Tapp will not be released until 2026, he fears. He does however, give a strong phone voice to him and explains his options.
Tapp states: “I appreciate what you guys do, and I thank …” for cutting off his sentence.”
