True crime is, without a doubt, a hot topic today. It’s the leading category in podcasts, and we now have TV networks that feature nothing but crime-based programming. Equally popular are programs involving cold cases and those where wrongful convictions have been overturned due to the diligent work of passionate researchers and investigators. One of the best-known organizations pursuing these cases is the Innocence Project, which alone has helped overturn 232 erroneous convictions. Over 3,500 years had been served in prison by these innocent individuals. This type of result is the aim of author Henry Ball. His new book “Michael Chapel” is about one of the highest-profile cases in Georgia history, and Ball believes this to be another erroneous conviction.
On April 15, 1993, Emogene Thompson was found murdered, her lifeless body in her car next to a business on a busy thoroughfare in Gwinnett County. A Gwinnett County Police officer, Michael Chapel, was soon arrested and charged with the crime. Widely covered in national media, the trial resulted in a conviction and life sentence for Chapel. An alternate juror in the case, Phillip Sullivan, felt the evidence was weak and circumstantial, made it his life’s work to try and overturn what he considered an unfair conviction.
Henry Ball’s involvement in the Chapel case has a long and winding history. He was acquainted with Chapel’s wife from childhood. Like many who followed the case in media, Henry initially thought Chapel guilty. After running across a television episode of Forensic Files concerning the case, he decided to look deeper. His quest began with a simple google search, which led to the three episodes of Dateline that focused on the case. Questions arose concerning the evidence presented and discrepancies in the official version of events. He became convinced of Chapel’s innocence research continued. Ball approached Chapel and his family for permission to investigate further and write a book about the case, and they gave their approval.
Ball has spent countless hours researching what he firmly believes to be an unjust conviction. He has reviewed over 20,000 pages of documentation, witness statements, police reports, transcripts, testimony, and crime scene analysis. He has interviewed many of the witnesses from the trial and found what he says are ironclad validations of Chapel’s alibi. He has also tracked down a dispatcher recording of a call to Chapel once lost but discovered by a previous investigator. Ball says it provides additional validation as to Chapel’s location at the time of the murder.
Ball has also investigated the original witness statements as to the perpetrator’s description and says they in no way describe Chapel. He says the same about witness descriptions of the vehicle seen at the crime scene.
Ball cites other suspicious happenings involving the case. A pistol found near where a potential suspect was staying was discovered and had two spent cartridges, matching the number of shots at the murder scene. The weapon was never tested for ballistics and was incinerated by the police. Chapel reportedly investigated a Gwinnett County police officer for improprieties who committed suicide days after Chapel’s arrest. Ball calls into question how the crime scene, suicide note, and the victim’s computer were handled by law enforcement. After reviewing his evidence, Ball hopes that organizations like the Innocence Project will take up the case and help him move forward toward what he feels is needed justice.
Michael Chapel is Ball’s second book. His first, Sister of Sorrows: Lost in the Wilds of Southern Louisiana, is a novel, weaving a fascinating story of a woman scorned in 1950’s Louisiana into a counterfeiting ring involving a former Heisman Trophy winner. The book has received excellent reviews.
