Death Penalty debate

There has been much discussion over the years regarding the humanity of the death penalty (even here in the States). Religion, morality issues, vengeance, justice, and personal feelings all enter into the argument as to whether or not you are for or against the death penalty and it's many forms: hanging, firing squad, lethal injection, electric chair, and the gas chamber. Granted, only three of these forms still exist in the United States but there has been a lot of controversy over whether we should still have any.

If done properly, the forms of death penalty we have are more humane than the death row prisoners deserve in my opinion. You go to sleep riding on a wave of tranquilizers before you get the lethal injection. Just about the same with the gas chamber. The electric chair possibly brings pain if done incorrectly. These people are on death row for a reason: They have done a monstrous injustice to mankind and they have been ordered by a jury and the court system to pay for their crimes with their lives.

Many say that they would prefer that a thousand guilty men go free before an innocent man is put to death. Would you want those guilty people back on the streets? Before I came to the US I was clearly against the death penalty, but in the meantime I have changed my mind and now consider the one innocent man dying to be an acceptable loss.

What is your opinion on the death penalty, its forms, and the guilty free/innocent man dead theory?