It's also okay to have been pro-death penalty before you knew better.
When I was younger I was pro-death penalty. And I won't beat myself up too much about that. I was a hurt, damaged abused person who wanted to believe there could be a measure of justice for the things that were done to me.
But, here are some of the reasons I changed my mind
1.) Death by lethal injection is not as painless as we are led to believe.
2.) The death penalty is disproportionately applied to inmates of color and
3.) People with mental or learning disabilities are unfairly sentenced to death row without proper access to reasonable accommodations in their defense. (There has been a significant effort to vacate the death row sentences of those with learning disabilities.
4.) (No articles for this one. This is just a deeply held belief that has formed over the years for me.) Our government should not be allowed to execute its citizens. There should be no class of people that any government is allowed to sentence to death. Because if you give them a class of people they are allowed to kill - they will find a reason to legally kill anyone they want.
