GROUND ONE: A
MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE
Does Chapel rise to the level of a miscarriage of
justice? Chapel rises beyond a simple miscarriage to the level of Dreyfus. Arrayed
against him were false evidence, false testimony, lies, deceit, deception,
corruption, betrayal, conspiracy and even cowardice.
It began with a police officer who came one step short of
discovering a major crime on the night of April 15, 1993, and a second officer
who innocently drove by the scene at that time[1].
Both officers cowardly did not come forward. What followed was a precipitous
arrest based on Chapel’s coincidental contacts with the victim, the hearsay
prattle of the victim’s friends[2]
and two identifications from a loaded photo lineup[3].
When, a few days later, the case against Chapel began to fall apart[4],
it was rehabilitated by conveniently finding the victim’s blood in Chapel’s
patrol car, almost by divination by a religious fanatic who felt he had the God
given ability to ferret out evildoers, and who was terrified of repeating a
previous transgression against another Gwinnett County citizen[5].
This was followed by the ruthless tactics of an ambitious district attorney who
succeeded in delaying the trial of Chapel for two and one-half years[6],
manipulated the testimony of witnesses[7],
attempted to implant false memories in witnesses[8],
solicited perjured testimony from at least one witness[9],
lied to the Court and jury[10],
blatantly hid critical evidence from the jury[11]
and generally engaged in the misconduct that was necessary to illegally convict
an honorable and innocent man[12].
Michael Chapel did not murder Emogene Thompson, nor
did any police officer unless he was sitting in the left rear passenger seat in
the victim’s automobile when she pulled into the Gwinnco Muffler driveway with
a flat tire[13]. This
petition is certainly not the place to try and solve this crime, but if,
instead of engaging in outrageous misconduct[14],
the police had paid any attention at all to their crime scene reports,
including fingerprints and blood spatter in the victim’s car, an out of place
cufflink on the left-rear-seat floorboard[15],
and the nature of the relationships surrounding the victim, the real killers of
Emogene Thompson would never have gotten away with murder.