Two of the co-chairs of the bipartisan Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission have praised organizations in the state for taking “essential steps” towards implementing some of the Commission’s recommendations to reform Oklahoma’s death-penalty system. In an article published December 7 in the Tulsa World, former Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry (pictured, left) and Andy Lester (pictured, right), a prominent Oklahoma litigator, spotlighted actions by the Oklahoma Bar Association (OBA) and the state District Attorneys Council that they say “commit to reforms” recommended by the Commission that would improve the quality of death-penalty representation and help reduce the risk of wrongful convictions. The Commission spent more than a year “analyzing, debating and hearing from law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, families of murder victims, those wrongfully convicted and others” before publishing a nearly 300-page report in April 2017 that included 45 recommendations for reforming Oklahoma’s death penalty. The report emphasized that one of the “most significant factors that influence outcomes in capital cases is the quality of a defendant’s attorney,” and called for the adoption of performance standards for death-penalty defense counsel. After meeting with the Commission, the state bar association created a task force that drafted minimum standards of capital-defense practice, which have since been approved by the OBA House of Delegates. The OBA’s Rules of Professional Conduct Committee is now drafting rules for capital defense lawyers for consideration by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Henry and Lester write that they “are so pleased” that the OBA’s actions have shown that it “understands the importance of a qualified lawyer in death penalty cases.” The co-chairs also praised the District Attorneys Council for “undertak[ing] recommendations from the commission.” These included conducting a training over the summer on common causes of wrongful convictions and “considering the formation of a best practices committee.” Henry and Lester recognize that the Committee’s recommendations will not all be implemented overnight, but say they “are encouraged that two major players in Oklahoma’s capital punishment system are working to improve standards and training for defense lawyers and prosecutors. Without effective lawyers on both sides,” they say, “we cannot guarantee that our system is just and fair.”
(B. Henry & A. Lester, Gov. Brad Henry and Andy Lester: OBA and DAC lead the way on death penalty reforms, Tulsa World, December 7, 2017.) See Oklahoma and Representation.
