Last night the state of Georgia murdered an American citizen in cold blood.

The tragic case of Troy Davis has no winners. A grieving family of a possibly innocent victim of capital punishment now joins the grieving family of a slain law enforcement officer. And despite the cacophony from protesters, lawyers, and pundits, there has been no justice served.

Even advocates of capital punishment should be disturbed that a man was executed for crime for which there was no physical evidence of his guilt. His sentence was carried out despite the fact that seven of the nine witnesses against him recanted their testimony. Numerous legal errors were identified at trial that unfairly prejudiced the verdict. Subsequently, several jurors have come forward to object to the sentence. Other objections were raised by former President Jimmy Carter, former FBI Director William Sessions, and even the former warden of the prison where Davis was incarcerated.

This execution has made a mockery of the American doctrine of equal justice under the law. Earlier this year the presence of a reasonable doubt resulted in an acquittal for Casey Anthony who was charged with killing her own daughter. I won’t pass judgment on that verdict because I wasn’t sitting on the jury and I didn’t hear all the evidence. However, to the extent that a reasonable doubt was justifiably held in the Anthony case, it is inconceivable that there wasn’t at least as much justification in the Davis case. Nevertheless, the white woman in Florida was acquitted and the black man in Georgia was executed.

Capital punishment is a serious business and should never be undertaken without thorough consideration. It is an irreversible penalty. We have all seen the reports of murder verdicts that were overturned while the prisoner was awaiting execution. We’ve seen innocent people released from death row after serving twenty or more years for a crime for which they were eventually exonerated. If we are to engage in capital punishment it must be reserved for cases that have as close to 100% certainty as humanly possible. And that was not done for Troy Davis.

There are many reasons why capital punishment should be abolished. In addition to being an irreversible penalty that can never be invoked with total certainty, it is inordinately costly as compared to life in prison. It is also barbaric and inspired by vengeance and blood lust.

It is ironic that the conservative adversaries of big government, who pontificate on the sanctity of life and complain incessantly that government can’t do anything right, are comfortable with allowing government to carry out executions. They even cheer at the mere mention of the number of executions carried out by Gov. Rick Perry in Texas, the national leader in state-sponsored murder. Troglodytes like Ann Coulter veritably drool at the thought of corpses being wheeled out of prisons. She published an article this morning, after the Davis execution, that called him the “the media’s latest baby seal.”

It is that sort of monstrous hatred that society promotes when it sanctions the killing of human beings. It is a horrific lesson to pass on to our children about justice and compassion. And if there is anything positive to take from the death of Troy Davis, it is a renewed resolve to eliminate capital punishment in this nation once and for all.