Why Georgia Bishop Condemned Two Innocent Men to Life in Prison

Do Episcopalian Leaders Regret Poisoning the Jury Pool?

Episcopalian Bishop Frank Logue

The very title of a recently resurfaced 2021 missive sent by Episcopalian bishop Frank Logue to the “Diocese of Georgia Community” gives the game away: “A Letter from Bishop Logue ahead of jury selection in State of Georgia v. Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael, and William R. Bryan.”

“Ahead of jury selection?” Could Logue have been any more clear as to his intentions? With the support of his fellow clergy, 29 in all, he was telling his flock what God—or a contemporary facsimile thereof—would want them to do about this “sin of racism” should they be chosen for the jury in question.

I have written about this case before. Greg McMichael and his son Travis are serving life without parole for their roles in the February 2020 shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery. Their neighbor William “Roddy” Bryan got life merely for recording the incident from a distance. The McMichaels’ ordeal haunts me. I have covered more than a few controversial cases, but I have not seen an injustice this profound in modern day America. Upon reading the good bishop’s letter, I. get a better sense of how and. why justice collapsed, and not just in Georgia.

Jury selection began on October 18, 2021. For the proceeding 16 months, following the death of George Floyd, the organized Left had coerced much of unthinking America into an extended paroxysm of guilt and grief. Just four months prior, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin had been sentenced to 22 years in prison, a sacrifice to the mob that threatened to set the city on fire again should he walk free. As corrupt as was Chauvin’s trial, the trial of Bryan and the McMichaels was arguably more so.

Travis McMichael struggles to regain control of shotgun after Arbery seized it

“Watching the video was unspeakably hard,” wrote Logue, referring to the video of the shooting Bryan recorded on his cell phone, “I lament that persons of color remain at greater risk than I will ever know.” Logue might have known that risk if he, like Arbery, had repeatedly returned to a neighborhood to plunder it.

Logue’s flock never learned that Arbery was a chronically criminal, mentally disturbed threat to the people around him, including his mother, who had called the police on her son in the past. But then again, the jurors never learned about Arbery’s history either. They were not allowed to.

Ahmaud Arbery’s earlier encounter with LEO reached the taser phase

Logue failed to mention that it was Greg McMichael, a Navy vet with an unblemished 30-plus career in law enforcement, who turned over the video to the state thinking it exculpatory. George Barnhill, District Attorney for the Waycross Judicial Circuit, thought so too.

Wrote Barnhill, “It appears Travis McMichael. Greg McMichael, and [neighbor Roddie] Bryan were following in pursuit burglary suspect, with solid first hand probable cause, in their neighborhood, and asking / telling him to stop. It appears their intent was to stop and hold this criminal suspect until law enforcement arrived. Under Georgia Law this is perfectly legal.”

Barnhill continued, “The video made by Bryan clearly shows the shooting in real time. From said video it appears Ahmaud Arbery was running along the right side of the McMichael truck then abruptly turns 90 degrees to the left and attacks Travis McMichael who was standing at the front left corner of the truck.”

“I cannot imagine being a parent, relative, or friend having to see Ahmaud’s death,” wrote Logue. “But without the video, we would not have arrived at this trial where the evidence will have its days in court.” Here, he is at least partially right.

Stacey Abrams, terror of Georgia’s feckless Republican establishment

Now with something to show, heavily edited for effect, the networks put out a casting call and who better to interpret the video than the self-proclaimed Georgia governor and resident race-baiter, Stacey Abrams. “It looks like murder,” Abrams told Chris Hayes of MSNBC. “It looks like vigilante behavior that should be charged and criminalized.” And charged and criminalized it promptly was.

The video surfaced on May 5, 2020. Three weeks later, the George Floyd video surfaced. In both cases, the media preyed on the weak minded to convince them to see what their leftist overlords wanted them to see. In both cases, too, the emotional outpouring overrode any serious attempt at due process.

The bishop’s letter serves as Exhibit one in the case against the hip clergy who dominate the established churches. They have given Christian cover to everything from sodomy to illegal immigration to abortion. Yes, even abortion. Said Presbyterian minister and professor of religious studies Rebecca Todd Peters, “If Jesus was here today he might have said ‘Blessed are those who end their pregnancies.” Lest her audience miss the message, Peters wore her bespoke pink Planned Parenthood stole.

Peters, Logue, and their fellow travelers have apparently concluded that man is wiser than God. Lacking Biblical foundation, they fall easy prey to the emotional cause du jour and eagerly wait to be told what new infamy to put on next year’s “This Church Welcomes” sign. If Jesus were here today, he might very well clean the lot of them of out of the temple.

This betrayal has been particularly hard on Leigh McMichael, wife of Greg and mother of Travis, he too a veteran with an impeccable record. Leigh was raised in an Episcopalian church, received her first communion there, married there, and had her children christened there. Leigh just saw Logue’s letter last week and responded by email.

Travis McMichael and son in better days

“You are a man of God and I have always had the utmost respect toward my spiritual leaders, but you are human also,” wrote Leigh. “My men are spiritual and have turned to God all of their lives. To this day, Greg and Travis are in their bibles…Because of their faith, Greg and Travis are surviving solitary confinement. 24/7 in a 6 x 10 cell. They are out of their cell ONLY for a heavy guarded shower 3x a week.”

Concluded Leigh, “I pray you seek the truth and not rumors or slander. Live with guidance from your soul and not by political correctness or popular beliefs. May God Bless You.” A week later, Logue has yet to respond. If he does, what could he possibly say?