August deadline for Richey's fate

August deadline for Richey's fate

BLADE COLUMBUS BUREAU

The Putnam County prosecutor's office has until mid-August to make its decision.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Jim Petro's office plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the lower court's ruling overturning Richey's conviction and death sentence, even through the high court would not make a decision on whether to hear the case before October.

Richey, 40, has served 18 years on Ohio's death row for the arson death of Cynthia Collins, a 2-year-old Columbus Grove, Ohio, girl whom Richey was baby-sitting.

A three-judge common pleas court panel found that Richey set the fire to kill his former girlfriend and her lover in the apartment below, but he ended up killing the child instead.

The 6th Circuit Court overturned the conviction, in part, because the state could not prove that the girl was Richey's intended victim.