OKLAHOMA CITY – Rep. Justin Humphrey, R-Lane, on Thursday held an interim study on felony murder before the House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee, which he chairs.

"A number of years ago, my position was that people on Oklahoma's death row had hundreds of chances and numerous appeals so it could not be possible for someone to be there that was innocent," Humphrey explained.

Humphrey said his opinion changed after meeting with attorney Donald R. Knight of the Don Knight Law Office. Knight, who is based in Colorado, now works exclusively on death penalty cases at the trial level.

"After looking into several of these cases and seeing the lack of evidence, I decided there is something really, really wrong with our system," Humphrey said. "What has amazed me is the quality of people who are standing up against this system who are being ignored despite the massive problems we have. That's what this study is about – how do we change our system, how do we get these issues resolved by changes in legislation, changes in court, those kinds of things."

Knight, who has worked on high-profile cases such as for Oklahoma death-row inmate Richard Glossip, spoke about systemic problems in Oklahoma's and other states' criminal justice systems.

In addition to Knight, Humphrey invited numerous other speakers to share during the more than five-our meeting.

Andrew Miller with the Innocence Project, spoke about The Brady Rule, established in the 1963 Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland, which requires that prosecutors disclose all exculpatory evidence to the defense in a criminal case. This has been an issue in numerous Oklahoma death penalty cases.

Maria Kolar, associate professor of law at Oklahoma City University's School of Law, delivered a slide show on felony murder and criminal law in Oklahoma and answered questions from Humphrey and others.

Jera Burton, a juror in the Tremane Wood's death penalty case, gave tearful testimony that the case and her vote to impose the death penalty haunts her to this day. She said she hopes the state does not execute Wood.

Additional presenters included Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Policy Project, and Emma Rolls, first assistant federal public defender for the Western District of Oklahoma and the chief of the Capital Habeas Unit, which represents most death penalty offenders in the state who have exhausted all other appeals.

Rolls said that each case she detailed in the study was from Oklahoma County and each featured a young black man in his 20s. She spoke about what she said was hidden evidence in the Julius Jones case. She also spoke about Emmanuel Littlejohn who was executed just over a week ago despite a recommendation of clemency from the state Pardon and Parole Board.

Rolls said it is possible for a jury to determine guilt and recommend a death sentence even if they cannot establish that the person caused the death of another human being.

"What we're talking about here today is really tough stuff, and that's why it's hard to get change in this area," Humphrey said. "While we have great compassion for the victims and their families, we also have to realize that we have cases where a person on death row may in fact be innocent of committing murder, and they too have family members who are affected by these cases."

Humphrey said he will work on legislation that would make sure individuals who have minor involvement in a felony murder case are no longer eligible for the death penalty. That doesn't mean, however, that he's in favor of letting people who are involved in heinous crimes walk free.

"Some might still wind up with life sentences without the possibility for parole," he said. "We're not talking about excusing crime, but that we fit the punishment to the crime. We cannot keep executing whomever we want, especially when we see a manipulation of evidence and outright lying. We must bring accountability back to this system and to those who work within it."