If the Georgia execution of Troy Davis on Wednesday - with significant doubts clouding his guilt - doesn't haunt you, this should. A day after that state killing, Robert Wilcoxson walked out of a North Carolina jail a free man after 10 years in prison for murder a three-judge panel now says he didn't commit.

Wilcoxson and Kenny Kagonyera, also freed, had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 2000 death - plea deals they said they made after prosecutors repeatedly threatened to charge them with first-degree murder and send them to death row if convicted.

DNA evidence recently helped exclude the two as suspects, and the three-judge N.C. Innocence Inquiry Commission - the only such panel in the nation - overturned their convictions on Thursday. Wilcoxson walked out of jail, hugged his father, then his 10-year-old daughter for the first time.

That happy ending happens more in movies than real life. The horrible truth is more in line with what happened to Davis. The accused steadfastly maintains his innocence for decades. Little physical evidence links the accused to the crime. Witnesses recant their testimony - key in the conviction. Courts deny appeals and the death sentence is carried out, with howls of protests echoing in the background.

That's how Davis' case turned out. And it's easy to see how Wilcoxson and Kagonyera could have faced the same fate.

Their case is a reality check for those who cling to the absurdity that no innocent person has been or could be executed. Since the United States reinstated the death penalty in 1976, more than 130 people have been released from death row with evidence of their innocence.

DNA evidence has proved a powerful tool in overturning such convictions. But it's expensive. Not every inmate whose conviction is questionable has access to it.

In Davis' case, little physical evidence even connected him to the crime. Police said shell casings matching those from an earlier shooting involving Davis were at the scene. But no murder weapon in the case was ever found. The main evidence against Davis was witness testimony and seven of the nine witnesses have recanted, many citing fear of the real shooter or police coercion. One of the remaining witnesses is allegedly the actual shooter.

We don't know if Davis was guilty. But his execution, amid serious doubts about his guilt, underscores again the problems with capital punishment.

There is no reversal to executing an innocent person. That life is gone, and the system has failed. But beyond that horrific outcome, the death penalty is neither cost effective nor a deterrent to such crimes.

Studies show repeatedly that states without the death penalty have fewer murders. They also show that the costs of death penalty cases are anywhere from 48 percent more (in Tennessee) to 70 percent more (in Maryland and Kansas) than non-death-penalty murder cases. Death penalty cases cost more even if post-conviction appeals aren't included. That's because the greatest costs in death-penalty cases are before and during the trials.

Still, all that pales in importance to the possibility of executing an innocence person. More than 3,200 inmates are on death row in the United States today. With questionable evidence against some, the likelihood of killing the wrong person in one of those cases is high.

Life without parole is a reasonable bar against such a travesty. It's time to ditch the death penalty. You only have to see Robert Wilcoxson with his father and 10-year-old daughter to understand why.