Missouri's death penalty deserves to be halted pending a review of its procedures and costs, several speakers said at a Sunday afternoon forum.

An eight-city speaking tour dubbed Road Trip for Justice made its first stop at Missouri Western State University. The program was sponsored locally by the university's Newman Club and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty, Amnesty International and social justice organization the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute are the lead sponsors.

Three speakers shared their death-penalty experiences with an audience that included university law students. Each said they could not support the death penalty under any circumstance.

"We want to encourage people to think about this important issue," said Colleen Cunningham, MADP's chairperson. "We need to have this conversation. It affects people in profound ways."

The first speaker, Dennis Fritz, said in April he will observe a decade of freedom after being falsely accused of an Oklahoma murder.

"I knew I was telling the honest-to-God truth," he said of investigators' use of a polygraph test in his case.

He said the 12 years he spent on death row were horrific.

"That was a heavy, heavy weight right there," Mr. Fritz said. "It was a total living nightmare out of hell."

The results of DNA tests exonerated him and a co-defendant. Author John Grisham wrote of the experience in his book "The Innocent Man."

"I actually believe there are innocent people on death row today," Mr. Fritz said.

Linda Taylor spoke of her involvement in the case of her son, Michael, who was sentenced to death in 1991 for a Jackson County murder. Now Mr. Taylor and other death-row inmates - such as John Middleton, of Spickard - are challenging Missouri's means of lethal injection. Mr. Middleton was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of a Grundy County couple and Iowa man in 1995.

"It's mind-boggling why we kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong," Mrs. Taylor said.

Bess Klassen-Landis said she has found it possible to forgive her mother's still-unknown rapist-killer.

"We need to find peace in our own souls," she said. "All you're doing is building up hate," she said of the death penalty.

Organizers asked audience members to support a call for the Missouri General Assembly to enact a death penalty moratorium. Ms. Cunningham said Missouri has never had a comprehensive study of its death penalty system. The groups plan to lobby for the law Wednesday in Jefferson City.

An informational meeting that could lead to the organization of a local death penalty group is set for 5:30 p.m. Feb. 23 in Room 205 of Wilson Hall at Western. Call Renee Boman at (314) 583-0231 for more information.

Ray Scherer can be reached at rscherer@npgco.com.