Main Menu
Home Kenny Richey Attorneys on the clock in Richey case Attorneys on the clock in Richey case
Saturday, 04 June 2005
By GREG SOWINSKI
419-993-2090
"This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it!"
CLEVELAND - An attorney for Kenneth Richey will seek to have Richey moved from Ohio's death row to the Putnam County jail after a ruling Friday that starts the clock on whether Richey is retried or released within 90 days.
Ken Parsigian is adamant on removing Richey from death row and starting the trial, if there is one. Parsigian placed a phone call to Putnam County Prosecutor Gary Lammers on Friday but was unable to reach Lammers, he said.
"He stands an unconvicted man. No unconvicted person is on death row," Parsigian said.
Ohio Attorney General spokeswoman Kim Norris said there are no immediate plans to move Richey from death row. The state maintains trial preparation, if that's what Lammers chooses, must start in the 90 days, not the trial, she said.
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals tossed Richey's 1987 conviction in January saying his trial attorneys didn't do a good enough job representing him. Also, the charge of aggravated mur-der, as the law read in 1986, was not the appropriate charge. It would have applied if Richey had killed the person he allegedly intended to kill - not 2-year-old Cynthia Collins. Collins died in the fire at a Columbus Grove apartment complex in 1986.
Lammers has not decided on whether he will attempt to retry Richey. He has been trying to schedule a meeting with deputy attorney generals to review legal options, he said Thursday.
Norris said attorneys in her office are eager to meet with Lammers and will try to set up a meeting as soon as possible. The ultimate decision on whether to retry the case rests with Lammers, she said.
Parsigian said he and other members of Richey's defense team will begin preparing for trial although he doesn't believe the state has a chance of winning.
Witnesses are gone or have changed stories, scientific evidence has been discredited and the ruling by the 6th Circuit takes away the chance to seek the death penalty based on double jeopardy, Parsigian said.
"They really have next to nothing left and it's time to do what the state often says to crimi-nal defendants, which is, it's time to accept it's over," he said.
Norris said Parsigian is wrong on the issue of double jeopardy and prosecutors have the abil-ity to retry the entire case. There have been death penalty cases in the past sent back for trial and prosecutors have successfully placed the defendants back on death row, she said.