Actors plan play to support Richey appeal

Moves to secure Sir Sean Connery's involvement in the project are also under way.

In an ambitious attempt to publicise the case, organisers plan to run at least five performances of the play on Burns Night in venues as diverse as the Scottish Parliament, Glasgow's ÒranMòr and in London, Dublin and Orkney.

The intended date of the shows - January 25 - will also mark one year to the day since the US Federal Court overturned his conviction and sentence.

Richey's hopes of release were crushed in November, however, after the Supreme Court erased the ruling, sending him back to death row. Despite evidence of his innocence, the Scot faces being executed by lethal injection.

The hour-long play - A Letter From Death Row - dramatises for the first time the night that two-year-old Cynthia Collins died from smoke inhalation after an alleged arson attack on her mother's flat in Columbus Grove, Ohio. It depicts Richey's arrest and prosecution by Randall Basinger, the state's assistant prosecutor, who has long been accused by the Scot of cynically using the case to win election as a judge.

Although details of the performances and cast are yet to be finalised, Hayman will play the role of Basinger in the show at ÒranMòr, while theatre actor Stewart Porter will play Richey. Pieraccini will also take part.

Burn, who plays hardman McCabe in River City, will play Richey in a Burns Night performance to be broadcast live on the digital London-based radio station Resonance FM.

The Scottish Parliament is also to be transformed into a venue for a performance of the work by Edinburgh theatre group Spartaki.

In Dublin, Irvine Welsh is negotiating a venue for the play and a further show is being planned in Orkney.

Other actors being approached include Billy Elliot star Gary Lewis and John Comerford . But organisers are also attempting to pull off a major coup by asking Hollywood legend Connery to get involved .

A source close to the project said: "We already have some top names on board, but we are in the process of contacting Sean Connery. It would be just fantastic for the case, but it would also be fitting, given that Kenny named his son Sean after the actor and they grew up in the same part of Edinburgh."

The events are being put together by the Miscarriage Of Justice Organisation Scotland (Mojo Scotland).

Playwright Johny Brown, a close friend of Irvine Welsh, began writing the play on Christmas Eve after reading about the case. He said: "The more I read about the case, the more it sunk in that it is a travesty."

Last night Brown said there were plans to take the play to theatres and radio stations in the US to press the government for Richey's release.

Actor Hayman described the Richey case as a "blatant political stitch-up" and added: "This is a terrible miscarriage of justice. It's incumbent on all of us to do what we can to raise awareness of the case."

News of the play comes on the weekend after Dead Man Walking author Sister Helen Prejean voiced her support for Richey's case.

Susan Sarandon, who played Prejean in a film version of Prejean's book, has also given her backing to the Scot.

Richey, now 41, is currently held in Ohio's Mansfield Correctional Institution awaiting execution.

15 January 2006

THE LIVE RADIO DRAMA OF KENNY'S CASE ON JAN 25 2006 7PM (UK TIME) CAN BE HEARD ON RESONANCE 104.4FM IN LONDON.
It can also be heard world wide online click on the link below

http://www.resonancefm.com/