USA - Oklahoma. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed the death sentence of Ernest Eugene Phillips

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed the murder conviction and death sentence of Ernest Eugene Phillips, 39, white. The panel ruled 3-0 that Phillips did not get a fair trial because the judge did not allow jurors to consider second-degree murder as a possible verdict. Second-degree murder does not carry the death penalty. Phillips was convicted of the 1996 fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Roderick Jason McFail, black.