Since joining hubski I've reversed my position on the death penalty. There is no group of humans that I trust 100% of the time to make a correct decision regarding ending another humans life. Even if 10,000 people must be locked up forever, rather than executed, to save the life of one innocent, that's worth it. Also I stand by rob05c, nitrogen chambers are the way to go if you have to do it.
*Edit, All that stated, I think that if you are facing life in prison, you should be given the option to at any time end your own life. *Edit to the edit, When I was for the death penalty, I was still a christian. I believed that if you committed a crime egregious enough to be executed, God would sort you out, and keeping you on earth only gave you an opportunity to hurt more people. If any innocents were accidentally killed, again, God would sort them out, and it wasn't any concern of mine. I am absolutely terrified of old me, and old me would be terrified of current me.