OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma shouldn’t execute any new inmates until officials are willing to invest additional resources and implement new policies to ensure that no innocent people are put to death, according to a report released Tuesday by the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission.

The independent, non-partisan commission released the nearly 300-page report after examining the state’s entire execution process from start to finish for more than a year.

Oklahoma already has delayed all executions for more than two years to give the Department of Corrections time to develop new protocols following high-profile execution mishaps, including that of Clayton Lockett. Lockett died after a prolonged, 43-minuted execution. Witnesses reported that Lockett writhed and appeared conscious at points during the procedure, leading to questions and criticism over the state’s execution procedures and the drugs used to kill offenders.

That moratorium needs to continue, the 11-member commission wrote in its report.

“As we studied this process, it became so clear to us that the death penalty process has serious flaws,” said former Gov. Brad Henry, who co-chaired the commission.

The biggest of those — a lack of resources, training and adequate funding.

Oklahoma’s defense attorneys, including court-appointed public defenders, are overwhelmed with felony cases and there are not enough to meet demand, Henry said.

Attorneys defending death penalty cases don’t have the funding necessary to hire the investigators and experts to mount a proper defense, particularly at the trial-court level, he said. In addition, Oklahoma Indigent Defense System attorneys, investigators and support staff should be receiving compensation similar to that paid to districts attorneys and their staffs.

“When you boil it all down, what we’re saying is if you’re going to have the death penalty you have to do it right,” Henry said. “It’s not being done right. There are far too few resources and other systemic problems, and so this state has, I think, a decision to make.”

Henry said leaders need to decide if they want to adequately fund court proceedings to ensure that the correct people are ending up on death row. Lawmakers, in turn, need to reform state laws to make sure an innocent person never ends up on the execution gurney in McAlester, he said.

Commission members were quick to point out, though, that they don’t know whether the state has ever put an innocent offender to death.

Since Oklahoma reinstated its death penalty in 1977, 10 death row inmates have been exonerated, Henry said.

One of those exonerations came in the case of Christy Sheppard’s cousin, Debbie Sue Carter, 21. Carter was found raped and murdered in her Ada apartment in 1982.

After separate trials, Ronald Keith Williamson was sentenced to death while Dennis Fritz was sentenced to life.

More than 16 years later, DNA testing cleared the two men of the crime, Sheppard said. Another man, who matched the DNA, was later convicted in the killing.

“We had lost all faith in the criminal justice system in addition to the agonizing guilt that two innocent men had suffered,” she said.

Sheppard, a victim’s advocate who served on the commission, said there were a lot of issues that helped keep both innocent men locked up.

“This commission’s in-depth study will show that truth, fairness and justice can be lost due to systemic problems in our death penalty system,” she said.

A spokesman with the state’s Department of Corrections said his agency had not yet had time to review the report.

While state officials are not required to adopt any of its more than 40 recommendations, Henry, a Democrat, said committee members are hopeful lawmakers will take them seriously.

Republican Gov. Mary Fallin said in a statement that her staff had not yet received a copy of the report, but planned to review the findings.

Janelle Stecklein covers the Oklahoma Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jstecklein@cnhi.com.