Two former governors of Alabama from opposite sides of the political aisle published an opinion piece in The Washington Post calling for the state to put an end to executing people who were sent to death row by a split jury, and for Alabama to commute the sentences of 146 death row inmates.

The op-ed was written by former Govs. Robert Bentley and Don Siegelman. Bentley, a Republican, served as governor from 2011 to 2017; Siegelman, a Democrat, served from 1999 to 2003.

Data from the Alabama Department of Corrections shows there are currently 167 people on Alabama Death Row—the greatest use of death row in the nation when adjusted for population. For every 100,000 Alabamians, there are 3.3 people on death row – by far the highest rate in the United States.

“As far as the two of us are concerned, that is at least 146 people too many,” states the op-ed published in The Washington Post.

Specifically, the piece calls for an end to executing people who were sent to death row either by a non unanimous jury, or by a judge who overturned a jury’s sentence for life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Under current Alabama law, a jury can vote 10-2 and still impose a death sentence. In 2017, Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law that juries, not judges, have the final say on whether to impose the death penalty in capital murder cases. It wasn’t retroactive, meaning people are still sitting on death row who were sent there against a jury’s recommendation.

Siegelman told AL.com Wednesday about judicial override, “It just doesn’t make any sense that we would execute people under a process that’s currently illegal in Alabama.”

The op-ed continued, “As former Alabama governors, we have come over time to see the flaws in our nation’s justice system and to view the state’s death penalty laws in particular as legally and morally troubling. We both presided over executions while in office, but if we had known then what we know now about prosecutorial misconduct, we would have exercised our constitutional authority to commute death sentences to life.”

The governors cite data from the Death Penalty Information Center that, since 1976, one person on death row nationwide has been exonerated for every 8.3 executions. “That means we have been getting it wrong about 12 percent of the time. If we apply those statistics to the 167 people on Alabama’s death row, it means that as many as 20 could have been wrongfully charged and convicted,” continued the piece.

The governors mention several men awaiting execution, including Toforest Johnson of Birmingham and Rocky Myers of Decatur. Johnson and Myers have long maintained their innocence.

Despite no physical evidence tying him to the crime, contradictory witnesses and a divided jury, Myers was found guilty in a fatal stabbing in Decatur three decades ago. Nine jurors in 1994 recommended he be sentenced to life in prison, while just three voted for death. But, a judge overruled the jury and sentenced him to die.

The state set an execution date in 2014, when Bentley was governor. The only reason he didn’t die on that date was because he got involved in litigation involving the drugs Alabama uses in its three-drug lethal injection protocol.

Read more about Myers’ case here.

Johnson was set to death row by a vote of 10-2, with two jurors calling for life in prison without parole. His case is currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“One of us, Don Siegelman, is personally haunted by the case of Freddie Wright, whose execution he could have commuted, but did not, in 2000. Twenty-three years later, Siegelman believes Wright was wrongfully charged, prosecuted and convicted for a murder he most likely did not commit,” said the op-ed.

The former governor said that’s the case that haunts him of the eight that happened under his reign as governor.

“As governors, we had the power to commute the sentences of all those on Alabama’s death row to life in prison,” said the op-ed. “We no longer have that constitutional power, but we feel that careful consideration calls for commuting the sentences of the 146 prisoners who were sentenced by non-unanimous juries or judicial override, and that an independent review unit should be established to examine all capital murder convictions.”

“We missed our chance to confront the death penalty and have lived to regret it, but it is not too late for today’s elected officials to do the morally right thing.”

Currently, House Bill 14 is pending in the Alabama Legislature, and that bill calls for a unanimous jury vote during the sentencing phase of a capital murder trial to put someone to death. It also provides an avenue for resentencing in circumstances that Bentley and Siegelman describe. That bill, sponsored by Chris England (D-Tuscaloosa), is set to go before the House Judiciairy committee on Wednesday.

Siegelman told AL.com that he has never written a piece that required, and used, so much research.

”It’s a passion, and were doing everything we can to bring attention to the fact that if you look at the justice system, there are just so many chances for error,” he said.