Retrial for Briton on death row

Kenny Richey has been told he will be retried

A Scot who has spent 18 years on death row in the United States for killing a two-year-old child is to be retried.

Kenny Richey, who was raised in Edinburgh, was sentenced to death for killing Cynthia Collins in a fire in Ohio in June 1986.

Richey's conviction was overturned in April on appeal and prosecutors were given 90 days to release or retry him.

A prosecutor in Putnam County confirmed on Thursday that the inmate would face a retrial.

Gary Lammers said: "It is my decision that there is sufficient evidence to seek new charges against Mr Richey and to proceed to retry him again for this horrible crime.

It's just not appropriate for them to be doing this but they're doing this because they can't admit they're wrong and partly out of spite Ken Parsigian Richey's lawyer

"The evidence supports that Mr Richey set the fire that callously ended this little girl's life."

Mr Lammers said he had reviewed the evidence and consulted investigators who worked on the case and witnesses who testified in the original trial.

He had also spoken to the family of the dead girl.

"I have heard their comments and voices for their loved one, lost so young, and regarding their feelings for what is just in this case," he said.

Richey's Boston-based lawyer Ken Parsigian, earlier this week said that the prosecution had a "snowball's chance in hell" of securing a conviction a second time around.

'Weaker' case

Talking about the prosecution's move to re-try his client, he said: "Their case is 10 times weaker that it was 19 years ago and it wasn't that strong a case then.

"It's just not appropriate for them to be doing this but they're doing this, I think, because they can't admit they're wrong and partly out of spite."

Richey's fiancée, Karen Torley, said she was not surprised by the decision.

"I am fine, we did not fear a retrial," she said.

"I know Kenny's name will be cleared."

Ms Torley said the campaign had never just been about freeing Richey but about getting justice.

A man who is as patently innocent as Kenny should not be forced to endure the agonising wait that will accompany a retrial Clive Stafford-Smith Reprieve

"I am disappointed because this has taken so long for Kenny to receive justice," she said in a statement.

"But a retrial is what Kenny has wanted all these years and what we have been fighting for. Now Kenny finally gets his day in court."

Ms Torley described Richey's original trial as "farcical" and that this time they would "set the record straight".

"The truth will set Kenny free and show that he is an innocent man," she added.

Amnesty International expressed disappointment at the decision, calling for an end to the constant delays and for a fair retrial to begin immediately.

Clive Stafford-Smith, the British-born US death penalty lawyer and legal director of Reprieve who has campaigned on behalf of Richey for 15 years, said anyone could see that the prosecution's evidence was weak.

"A man who is as patently innocent as Kenny should not be forced to endure the agonising wait that will accompany a retrial," he said.

'Innocent man'

"He has already spent 18 years sitting on death row for a crime he did not commit.

"There was no physical evidence linking Kenny to the crime. The prosecution's major witnesses have changed their story.

"I find it hard to believe that the Ohio authorities cannot find better uses for their taxpayers' dollars."

Alistair Carmichael, MP for Orkney and Shetland who spearheaded Richey's campaign in parliament, called on the British Government to do all it could to assist Richey in the coming weeks.

The Liberal Democrat, who has visited the Scot in prison, said: "They have shown a willingness to act in the past and their active involvement must be maintained.

"While I welcomed the fact that Kenny Richey will now be able to clear his name, it is regrettable that an innocent man will have to spend still more time on death row."