Death row Briton awaits decision

State officials say they will re-try Kenny Richey

A Briton on death row in the United States is still awaiting the outcome of a key legal decision in his case.

An appeals court in Ohio overturned Kenny Richey's murder conviction earlier this year but prosecutors lodged an appeal against that ruling.

Now the Supreme Court must decide to uphold that appeal or pave the way for Richey to be re-tried.

The case had been expected to be heard on Monday, but is now unlikely to be called until the end of the month.

Richey, who was raised in Edinburgh, has been on death row since 1987 for murdering a child in an arson attack.

'Very unlikely'

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned his conviction but prosecutors in Putnam County said the court exceeded its powers.

They stated that they would re-try Richey for the murder of two-year-old Cynthia Collins if their appeal was rejected.

Richey's lawyer, Ken Parsigian, said it was "very unlikely" that the Supreme Court would hear the case.

He said: "If they don't hear the case then that means the decision that came out earlier this year is final and Kenny's conviction has been thrown out.

"It will be up to the state to decide whether they want to re-try him, but his old conviction will be thrown out.

Parents divorced

"This is the end of the whole process of appealing his original conviction. But it doesn't prohibit the state from charging him again and trying him again and they may do that."

Richey was born in Germany to an American father and Scottish mother and was brought up in Edinburgh.

He moved to the US in the early 1980s when his parents divorced.

He was accused of starting a fire at an Ohio apartment block in 1986 in a bid to kill former girlfriend Candy Barchet who was asleep with her new boyfriend.

The blaze claimed the life of Cynthia Collins in another apartment.