MobLogic’s Latest Crusade: Saving Troy Davis

So, in case you haven’t been keeping up with MobLogic recently, you should know that this week, they’re trying to save a man’s life.

The CBS Interactive series, created by the folks behind Wallstrip, has gained a fair amount of notoriety for somewhat gimmicky stunts like host Lindsay Campbell getting voluntarily arrested. But the show does live up to its mission statement of providing a reality check on mainstream media, typically by following stories stories that no longer hold interest for the front pages and nightly news.

And their coverage of Georgia’s death penalty cases is what brings us to today. After doing an an 11-episode series in May covering convicted murderer David Crowe, a Death Row inmate whose sentence was commuted to life in prison, last Friday the series turned its attentions to another Georgia death penalty case that might not have so happy an ending.

Troy Davis was convicted of killing a police officer in 1989 and is now scheduled to be executed Sept. 23, at 7 p.m. (EST). Campbell does a much better job of breaking down the facts than I could, but the basics are this: a man, pleading innocent of the charges against him, was convicted in part due to eyewitness testimonies — seven of which have been retracted since the trial, and one of the remaining two witnesses a suspect in the murder. There’s enough evidence to at the very least consider reexamining the case, and it’s for exactly these reasons that death penalty cases can be commuted to a life sentence. Campbell and, by extension, the MobLogic producers make no claim to impartiality, explicitly calling this case out as an example of one where the proper application of justice would be to give Troy Davis the same treatment Crowe received.

It’s unusual to see a show using the anchor desk for such explicit advocacy, but in this case the cause is quite possibly noble enough to warrant it. So do what MobLogic says and go read about the case for yourself. Your mind is your own to make up, but as Campbell says in her conclusion: the execution is schedule for tomorrow, and time is limited.