A Thin Blue Crime

In Episode Five, we meet Steve Mitchell—a country boy from Buford who was dismissed for decades as a crackpot, a man whose extraordinary claims weren’t worth believing. Then Henry Ball started checking the record. Police reports. Internal documents. Undercover drug operations. Surveillance evidence. A burned-out home. A bag full of cash used to test Michael Chapel. Piece by piece, Ball uncovered evidence corroborating the story authorities had spent years trying to discredit and bury. They called Steve Mitchell crazy. Henry Ball found the records that proved he is anything but.

On the night Emogene Thompson was murdered, her son Michael was one of the last people known to have seen her alive. Episode 4 takes a closer look at the questions surrounding that night: conflicting timelines, a car that may not have been where Michael Thompson said it was, an unexplained late-night phone call, a missing purse, and witnesses whose accounts would not surface until after Michael Chapel was convicted. What was known that night? What was overlooked? And what would emerge years later? Nearly thirty years after Emogene’s murder, one of the people at the center of that night told a very different story.

In this episode, we slow down the night of April 15, 1993, minute by minute. When did Chapel leave the fire station? Where did he go next? And did he actually have enough time to commit the murder the state said he did? Using trial testimony, original police interrogation audio, witness interviews, and case records, Episode 3 examines the timeline at the heart of Michael Chapel’s conviction and the accounts that call it into question. When the minutes matter, what does the timeline really tell us?

Michael Chapel’s attorneys have filed an Application for a Certificate of Probable Cause with the Georgia Supreme Court, seeking review of the ruling denying his habeas petition. In this breaking-news update, we examine the new filing, hear from experts involved in the case, and explain what could happen next.

This is the State’s version of what happened. In Episode 2, you’ll hear the prosecution’s case against Michael Chapel the way jurors heard it: through trial audio, witness testimony, courtroom evidence and the prosecution’s own words. The evidence jurors were asked to believe: the roadcheck sightings, Emogene Thompson’s missing money, the raincoat, the patrol car seat and the blood evidence prosecutors said Chapel could not explain away. For years, even some people who knew Mike believed the case against him was simply too strong to overcome... But was it?

On a stormy April night in 1993, Gwinnett County police officer Michael Chapel went from decorated Marine, husband, and father to accused murderer. His conviction would send him to prison for life. Decades later, a new investigation uncovers witnesses, evidence, and contradictions buried in a case everyone else had left behind. Learn more: MichaelChapel.com Join the discussion: Michael Chapel Is Innocent on Facebook

For thirty-three years, the world has known a certain narrative. A rogue cop. A betrayal of trust. A bloody raincoat. The victim's DNA in the patrol car. A killer cop. An innocent grandmother. Life in prison. Case closed. But what if I told you the only part of that story that was true was that an innocent grandmother was killed in cold blood by a Gwinnett County police officer? Just not the one they put in prison for it. For thirty-three years, you've heard the story. Now, hear the evidence. Storied Press has the receipts.