US Retrial For Scot On Death Row

A Scottish man who has spent more than 20 years on death row in the US is to face a retrial after his conviction was overturned for a second time.

Kenny Richey was sentenced to death in 1987 after he was convicted of starting a fire which killed a two-year old girl in Ohio.

The 43-year-old has always protested his innocence.

Prosecutors are not appealing against the overturning of the sentence. Richey will now face a retrial within 90 days.

Until then it is expected he will be transferred to an ordinary county jail and could apply for bail until the trial begins within 90 days.

The legal team representing the former US Marine, originally from Edinburgh, said they welcomed the news and that they had been preparing for a retrial for two decades.

The Sixth Circuit Federal Court of Appeal in Cincinnati overturned Richey’s death sentence for a second time on 10 August.

State prosecutors could have gone to the US Supreme Court to try to have that decision overturned, but instead decided to stage a new trial.

Reprieve, which fights for prisoners on death row, welcomed the move.

Legal director Clive Stafford Smith, who has assisted Richey’s case for almost two decades, said: “This is great news, though it has been a long time coming for Kenny.

“Once the prosecution sit down and start to prepare their case for trial, they will realise that they don’t have one.

“The only decent thing to do here is drop the charges and send Kenny home to Scotland.”

Richey was 18 when he left his mother’s home in Edinburgh to live with his American father in Ohio, where he joined the US Marines.

In July 1986 he was arrested for the murder of two-year-old Cynthia Collins, who died in a fire at her mother’s apartment.

The prosecution claimed he started the fire because his estranged former girlfriend and her new lover – supposedly the intended targets – lived in the flat beneath.

Richey’s lawyer Ken Parsigian said: “Kenny has always wanted a chance to prove his innocence and a new trial will give it to him.

“This time, though, he will have quality representation and the prosecution will face huge problems, not least the fact that we have decimated their scientific case that the fire was arson.

“We have already been preparing for retrial and we will be ready to bring a final end to this 21-year miscarriage of justice.”

Amnesty International Scotland director John Watson said: “Whilst Kenny’s original trial can be held up as a model of shoddy justice, the eyes of the world will be on this new case, which must be seen to meet the most stringent standards.”