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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A bipartisan group Wednesday recommended 18 ways to prevent wrongful executions, including better compensation and education for defense counsel and defined limitations on those deemed eligible for the death penalty.

"The goal is justice, not executions," said William Sessions, a former federal judge and FBI director under Presidents Reagan and Bush. "We all want to make sure the process is fair and that the right person is punished. These recommendations are essential to that goal."

The recommendations are the result of a one-year study conducted by a committee from the Washington-based Constitution Project. The panel includes advocates and opponents of capital punishment, including former judges, federal prosecutors, law enforcement officials, religious leaders and victims-rights advocates, and includes. The committee includes conservatives and liberals.

The study -- released hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee opened a hearing on ensuring competent legal counsel in death penalty cases -- was prompted by "recent events" that drew attention to the danger of wrongful executions, the group said. Those include last year's order from Illinois Gov. George Ryan to halt executions in that state, imposed after 13 men were released from the state's death row because they had been wrongly convicted or received unfair trials.

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The committee says it is concerned that inmates are denied access to DNA evidence that could prove their innocence. The report says such evidence should be preserved and introduced in cases where it may exonerate the defendant.

Kirk Bloodsworth, a former death row inmate who was exonerated on DNA evidence, said the proposed reforms would help others like him who are wrongly sentenced to death.

"I think we need ... these reforms put into action today, and as soon as possible, so there's not another Kirk Bloodsworth," Bloodsworth told CNN. He spent eight years in prison, including two on death row.

The report, titled "Mandatory Justice: Eighteen Reforms to the Death Penalty," focuses on the need for effective defense counsel. The group says some defense lawyers cannot afford to investigate cases properly or know little about criminal law, while others have been drunk or asleep during their clients' trials.

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It seeks to bar the mentally retarded and offenders younger than age 18 from being eligible for capital punishment. Life without parole should be an option, the report says, in all capital cases.

It also says efforts should be made to remove racial bias from all steps in the sentencing process, and calls on states to administer the death penalty "in a rational, non-arbitrary and even-handed fashion."

"I am convinced that individuals have been and will be executed without having their constitutional rights vigorously protected and enforced," said Charles Baird, a former judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and a co-chair of the committee. "These recommendations are a critical step to establishing better safeguards."

The group says people facing the death penalty sometimes have limited access to the courts to review wrongful conviction claims. It recommends defense attorneys should be given access to pre-trial information, and proposes eliminating a judge's power to change a jury verdict of life imprisonment to the death penalty.

Paula Kurland, whose daughter was murdered by a man later sentenced to death for his crimes, supports capital punishment but said the system should be reformed. "I feel that some crimes warrant the death penalty and some warrant life without the possibility of parole," Kurland told CNN. "I think that everyone needs to have the choice."

The committee said it plans to distribute its recommendations to policymakers and conduct a public education program.