USA (Oklahoma) :Death penalty / Legal concern Phillip DeWitt Smith

USA (Oklahoma) :Death penalty / Legal concern Phillip DeWitt Smith

Index Number: AMR 51/021/2001
Date Published: 8 February 2001
Categories: USA, Americas

Phillip Smith, black, is scheduled to be executed in Oklahoma on 8 March 2001. He was sentenced to death in 1984 for the murder of Matthew Dean Taylor.Matthew Taylor, white, had been bludgeoned on the head with a blunt instrument, in his apartment. There were no eyewitnesses. No physical evidence linked Phillip Smith to the crime scene, and he maintained his innocence of the murder.