When we agreed to co-chair the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, we viewed it as an opportunity to better understand a difficult issue. The bipartisan commission included five women and six men representing diverse legal, educational and government experience. Together, we spent more than a year analyzing, debating and hearing from major stakeholders, such as law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, families of murder victims and those wrongfully convicted.

In April, the commission released a nearly 300-page report and announced more than 45 recommendations. Our report concludes that the state's death penalty system is not working, and without major changes, Oklahoma risks executing innocent people.

After the release of our report, commissioners traversed the state, meeting with groups that have the power to act on our recommendations and with those that would be affected by them. Now, we are hopeful. We have already seen two major stakeholders — the Oklahoma Bar Association and the District Attorneys Council — take up our recommendations and commit to reforms.

OBA President Linda Thomas created a task force to address standards for defense counsel in death penalty cases. The 11-member task force, headed by Oklahoma City attorney Mack Martin, crafted a framework for minimum standards of practice for the capital defense bar.