Trying to learn on lunch

At the beginning of my lunch break today I decided I was going to try and expand my horizons of worldly news. I visited the url of cnn.com. I have not visited this site since the tradegy at Virigina Tech.
Today there was a story there about a man named Workman. In 1982 he was convicted of killing a police officer during a robbery of a Wendys restaurant that went wrong. He did not plan to kill anyone and claims any loss of life is tragic - but understands he needs to pay the price. Thus the 53 year old has spent most of his life behind bars. On May 9th he is to be put to death. This is his fourth scheduled appointment for the procedure. The method with which he is suppose to meet his end - lethal injection.
Now I'm not a fan of the death penatly. This doesn't mean I agree with the person's actions - I'm just not so sure we should be allowed to take the life of someone - I'm just not sure. I don't want to have to be the one to judge, or flick the switch, or push the needle. But that is what got me thinking.
People who work for the government get paid to end the life of a prisoner so they can pay their debt to society. Although I have never conducted a study - my hypothesis would be that most inmates don't really have a death wish. Yet - Dr. K (dr. death) gets criticized and punished for helping those who are pleading for help to move on as they are horribly suffering. I'm not saying I agree or disagree with those methods either - but it just seems a bit contradictory. We will pay someone to kill someone who does not necessarily want to die but has done something wrong - and punish the person who is trying to help some die peacefully who is in agony yet is assumed a good person. How is one lethal injection more acceptable than the other? Would it be ok to give that person who wants to die a lethal injection if they go out and kill someone first - even if they don't want to kill that person - but do wish to die themselves?
I need to do more research/reading on all of this to actually form a true opinion for myself - but these were just my thoughts for the moment.