Death row Scot returns to prison

Kenny Richey has spent two decades on death row

Death row Scot Kenny Richey has been returned to jail in Ohio following a heart scare.

Richey had been due to attend a court hearing which would have seen him set free when he suffered from chest pains.

Instead he was taken from Putnam County Prison to a nearby medical centre for treament while his court date was rescheduled for January.

Mr Richey has been on death row in the US for 21 years after being convicted for a fire which killed a toddler.

No defence

His brother Steve Richey spoke to him on Friday and said that tests had revealed that he had about 60% blockage in his heart and will need an operation.

But Richey, 43, wants to have the operation after he is released and not delay his return to freedom, his brother said.

His lawyer Ken Parsigian said: "He is back in jail but he is happy.

"We are trying to find a date next week that we can do the hearing and do the release.

"It will happen before 8 January but we don't know the date."

At the hearing on Thursday, Richey was to plead no contest to attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangering and breaking and entering and be sentenced to time already served in the 1986 death of a toddler in an apartment fire.

A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt, but a statement that no defence will be presented.

Richey was put on death row in January 1987 after being convicted of starting a fire in which two-year-old Cynthia Collins died.

Prosecutors claimed he began the fire as a jealous attack on his former girlfriend and her new lover, who lived in the flat beneath.

The Scot, who has always protested his innocence, refused a plea bargain which would have led to an 11-year sentence for arson and manslaughter.

He came within an hour of execution 13 years ago.