Michael Harold Chapel

Michael Harold Chapel is a former Gwinnett County Georgia police officer, who was convicted in the April 15, 1993 murder of fifty-three-year-old Emogene Thompson outside a muffler shop on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in Sugar Hill, Georgia.

Chapel has maintained his innocence for over twenty-eight years. Supporters point to a number of instances of lost, manipulated, and suppressed exculpatory evidence.

On April 15, 2021 the newly elected District Attorney, Patsy Austin-Gatson, announced the formation of the Convictions Integrity Unit, to look into past wrongful convictions in Gwinnett County.

This action by the District Attorney spurred many friends, family members, and concerned citizens to flood the District Attorney's office with letters and requests for a fresh look at the evidence in the case.

Murder of Emogene Thompson[]

Thompson, who lived in a trailer home with her son, reported to the Gwinnett County Police Department that about half of $14,000 in cash that was in her possession had been stolen.

Chapel was assigned to respond. He stated to her that because only part of the money was missing, he suspected her son.

Thompson allegedly told friends that she was planning to meet with Chapel after he told her he wanted to compare serial numbers on the bills, though none of these friends would testify to this meeting and there were no phone records of the six or eight phone conversations that one friend alleged to have had with the victim that day.

On the evening of April 15, 1993, Thompson was shot twice in the head while she was seated in her parked car.^[1][2] Her body was discovered inside her car, with the ignition on but not running, the following morning at Gwinnco Muffler Shop on Peachtree Industrial Blvd., in Buford. The primary evidence against Chapel was that a police car was seen by witnesses that night along with Thompson's car.

Trial and Conviction[]

The case was presided over by Judge Bishop. Verdicts in the case were returned from a jury on September 8, 1995 and September 10, 1995 of life imprisonment, instead of the death penalty.^[3]

An alternate juror in the case, Philip Sullivan, would publish a detailed analysis of the case against Chapel, calling it weak and circumstantial.

Sullivan, sixty-three at the time of trial, would devote the rest of his life to defending Michael Chapel and trying to overturn what he viewed as a gross miscarriage of Justice.

Completely independent of both the prosecution and a mandatory Policemen's Benevolent Association (PBA) review of the accusations, Congressman James Traficant launched an investigation of his own into the charges against Chapel.^[4]

On September 11, 2021 Storied Press released a book, Michael Chapel - Why a Decorated Veteran and Former Police Officer Remains in Prison Decades After a Crime He Did Not Commit, alleging Chapel’s innocence and exposing corruption at the Gwinnett County Police Department as well as the Gwinnett County District Attorney's office under former District Attorney Danny Porter.

Chapel is currently held in Long State Prison.

References[]

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