On December 27th 2010, Georgia State Trooper First Class Chadwick LeCroy pulled over a car with a broken taillight on Bolton Road in northwest Atlanta. It should have been routine. Instead, it became the first fatal shooting of a Georgia trooper in thirty-five years.

The man behind the wheel was Gregory Favors, a thirty-year-old career criminal with eighteen prior arrests stretching back to 1998. He'd been convicted of drug charges, weapons violations, forgery, and obstruction. He was on active probation in Cobb County. 

And he should have been in prison. This episode digs into everything that went wrong before that night. The rocket docket system that fast-tracked felonies and handed out lenient sentences to clear overcrowded jails. The July hearing where a prosecutor asked for four years and a judge gave sixty days. The December thirteenth release when no officer showed up to testify and a known flight risk walked free on a signature bond. 

The missed court appearance the morning of the murder that should have triggered a bench warrant. We examine the finger-pointing between District Attorney Paul Howard, Mayor Kasim Reed, APD Chief George Turner, and Chief Judge Cynthia Wright. We look at the failed push for Chad's Law and the reforms that came too little, too late.

And we remember the man behind badge 744, the trooper who spent his whole life dreaming of wearing the uniform and finally got his chance at thirty-six years old.This is the story of a death that didn't have to happen. 

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Until next time —The facts matter.
The details matter.
And the truth is often redacted.