White, whose wife, Char, was murdered on that date, was later charged with the murder and spent over two years in prison before his conviction was overturned.

"I wanted revenge. I hated the man who killed my wife. I was a hating man. But now, by the grace of God, I'm a healing man," White said.

"I came through by the grace of God. I found I could not forgive that man on my own. So I cut the word in half - for, give it to God," he said.

White was part of the Journey of Hope: From Violence to Healing tour, sponsored by the Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty. Speakers traveled throughout the state this past week to offer their message - although their lives had been touched by violent crime, they do not support the death penalty.

Before his wife's murder, White, a father of two, said he never really thought about the death penalty and had never discussed it with anyone.

"My support for the death penalty began that night. I wanted that man dead. I was brought up to believe in a loving God, but these were not loving times," he said.

But White told the students that when he tried to validate that support, it just didn't work. "The Bible says 'an eye for an eye,' but in Matthew Chapter five, Jesus speaks of loving your enemies. I said, 'God, please. I am supposed to love the man who murdered my wife? Love the authorities who blamed me?'"

In the end, White said if he wanted to continue being a Christian, he could not validate support of the death penalty from a faith perspective. When he began investigating materials about the death penalty, he found he could not validate his support from a factual perspective, either.

"That's my challenge to you - raise your own awareness and share that knowledge," he told the students.

To Andy Schermerhorn, a senior at LeBlond, that challenge makes sense. He said reading Sister Helen Prejean's book, "Dead Man Walking," and other materials convinced him that the death penalty was wrong.

Support for the death penalty "has to do with lack of knowledge about the death penalty," Schermerhorn said. "People don't really know all the facts."

Senior Andy Doran noted that White's speech offered a compelling argument against the death penalty. "We could see why he had every reason not to be against the death penalty. After going through all that pain and suffering and still not wanting that man dead - that's the ultimate in forgiveness - just how we as Christians should view it."

Doran said he hoped White's talk changed students' minds who were for it. "If we always believed in 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' we'd all be blind and eating soft foods," he said.

Schermerhorn and Doran, along with senior Elizabeth Seiter, will attend a rally for a moratorium on executions at the state capitol in Jefferson City on April 3.

"An execution is not the solution. It does nothing at all to heal the wounds of our loss," said White. "Not in our names - our hearts have bled enough."