Officials with the Foundation, which claims to be a national group organized to offer legal counsel for policemen unjustly accused of crimes, were in Gwinnett last week to speak out on behalf of their client.
While here; they professed to have new evidence which not only will free Chapel, but which also will convict the real murderer. Sadly, however, they have declined to share any of that evi- dence with the district attorney's office or the county police department.
Instead, in the grand tradition of Ferry Mason, they promise to identify the real murderer sometime next year, whenever they get around to mounting a court challenge to the Chapel convic- tion.
You would think there would be a little more urgency to the matter than that. You would think a team of defense attorneys and investigators, convinced they know the identity of a murderer, would be forthright in ring- ing that evidence to the proper author- ities.
You would think that even if the Defense Foundation felt it could not trust the local police department, or the office of the district attorney, that it would explore other avenues through the courts to bring such startling new information to light.
You would think there would t>e a moral, if not legal, obligation to share such startling new information. But apparently those hoping to free Chapel feel no such obligation to either their client or the people of Gwinnett County rather than asking for donations to the Chapel defense fund, those who hope to free the former officer need to put their money where their mouth is, and offer for review some of the startling new evidence they claim to have, but which they refuse to share.
You would think that would be the right thing to do for all concerned. And you'd be right.