having being anti death penalty as one of my core beliefs is fun because it really makes me realize how even progressive people want soooooo badly for there to be a category of people they can kill. I'm sorry but "group of people okay to kill" does not exist.
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.
Lethal injection is just some pseudoscientific bullshit made up by people who want the death penalty to remain while understanding that people hate being confronted with death and will turn on it given time. If it was about ensuring a quick reliable death the US would be using the guillotine, but then people would realise how fucked up it is and WE CAN'T HAVE THAT.
