Death Row Diary

REPRIEVED Death Row inmate Kenny Richey feared he would be doomed to spending years in a Scottish jail.

The Scot was sure his conviction for murdering two-year-old Cynthia Collins would not be overturned.

He believed appeal judges would be too afraid of giving him the chance to launch a massive damages claim.

The Scot confided his most private hopes, fears and thoughts in a diary he posted regularly to fiancée Karen Torley while he waited for a decision and a visit from her.

She gave us exclusive access to it because we backed her campaign to have him freed.

His words reveal the misery of wondering for almost 19 years if he was to be put to death, state bosses changing the method from electric chair to lethal injection.

Kenny?s brilliant American lawyers Paul Nemser and Ken Parsigian flipped a coin to decide which would put forward the 13th and final appeal to save him on May 7, 2003.

May 6: Hope everything goes well tomorrow. And I hope like hell the court doesn?t send my case back to the district court in Cleveland for that dopey bitch (an earlier appeal judge) to rehear.

May 8: Well, according to my lawyers my hearing went well and two of the (three) judges seemed to be on out side more. The judges refused to accept the letters (of support) from Robbie Coltrane and whoever else wrote. Don?t know how long we will have to wait babe, but it will probably be within six months (The decision was only announced this week, more than 20 months later).

May 9: This July will be my 17th anniversary behind bars! Seventeen f*****g years!!! And people wonder why I?m bitter and angry!

That?s a lot of years to have stolen from one?s life for bloody nothing! God had better have a purpose behind this nightmare. And it better be a real good one too!

Seventeen years! How the hell do I pick up the pieces after all that time? What the hell is life going to be like for me when I get out? Or if I get out? What will I be like? The world has changed so much since I?ve been gone.
I didn?t fit in when I WAS in it, how the hell could I fit in now? Will my hate, anger and bitterness drive me into the darkness? A familiar dwelling for me.

Forgive me, my love. Depression seems to be trying to sneak up on me! One of them bloody days I guess eh?
Have I told you lately that I love you?

May 13: I hope like hell this court doesn?t take more than three months to give me a decision on my hearing. I hate it when the courts drag s**t out.

May 15: Another boring day today as usual. Life sucks! I wouldn?t mind a wee holiday in bloody Spain right now.

May 21: Still miss and love me as much as much as I miss and love you? You bloody well better, ya Celtic lover ye.

Ah hey, did I tell you I have a new front tooth babe? No the dentist didn?t give me it. I actually made the bloody thing out of a piece of white plastic from a fork and two bits of metal from a bread bag tie! I?ve made three of them so I?ll always have one on hand. They look pretty damn good too.

All the lads thought it was a real replacement! So now I can finally smile again without looking so bloody goofy!

I love you more than there are stars in the sky babe. I always will. They say there are two or three things that are constant in life but there are actually three: life, death and my love for you.

May 31: What have I been up to? What?s going on in here?

I never tell you much about what happens in here? I haven?t been up to anything and nothing is going on in here, which is why I never tell you what happens in here as nothing does!

It?s the same old s**t from one day to the next, day in and day out. Nothing changes.

I get up at 6.30am everyday, unless I?m already up, which is usually the case. I wash, brush my teeth, comb my hair, get dressed and smoke a fag as I wait for recreation, if its my day for morning rec. I fix myself a cup of coffee (30oz) cup and go to rec (recreation) usually at 7am. I sit at the rec table and lay cards. Usually poker.

At 10.30am rec is over and I return to my cell. (breakfast was eaten in the rec cage around 8am or so)

Back in my cell I lay down and go to sleep until lunch at 12.45pm, usually, or I sit at my food slot and talk to Duke (another Death Row inmate). We each set up our mirrors on the slot pointed at each other, so we can see one another when we talk.

I made a contraption so we can hear each other better. It?s a long pole made from joining hollow cardboard toilet rolls together. At each end I inserted a juice bottle (plastic) with the bottom cut out. I stick one end at his food slot and the other at mine and then we talk through it. We call it our ?cell phone?. It works great!

At 1.30pm the guards close the slots. I sit on my bunk until 2.15pm when the second shift guards pass out mail. If I don?t get any mail I usually lay down and go to sleep for an hour or three at the very most. Then at 5.45pm they bring chow.

At 6pm I watch TV, usually the news. Off and on from then on I will watch TV, write you or sleep until next morning.

I do the same thing every day. Day in and day out. Same old boring s**t from one day to the next, though I do tend to spend more time sleeping these days or just laying on my bunk with my eyes shut.
Take care Fluffbrain. I love you.

June 14: I see we have three executions scheduled for this month babe. Martin, Lewis and Campbell. (Ernest Martin, 42, convicted of shooting a pharmacist during a 1983 robbery was executed four days later; Jerome Campbell, 42, had his death sentence commuted to life imprisonment the following month and Lewis Williams, 45, was executed earlier this month for the murder 20 years earlier of a woman, 76, in a burglary). I know all three of them too!

Martin was always a decent kind of guy and is liked by many in here. I wouldn?t want to see him executed babe. He definitely doesn?t deserve it. He has a good heart. I consider him a friend.

June 16: The doctor has put me on some new medication for high blood pressure. He?s also put me on antibiotics for my kidneys. Seems I?m falling apart.

How do I know that I will be different from the way I used to be when I finally get out, you ask?

Well, first of all babydoll, I?ve grown up a great deal since those days. I?m not interested in going out and getting drunk all the time and chasing women. To be honest, I don?t really like getting drunk. As for women, I?m more than satisfied with the one I have babe. I don?t need any more. Trust me Karen I won?t be getting back into my old ways. Those days are gone!

June 25: I stopped getting excellent reports by the age of ten. I got sick and tired of my dad never being satisfied or happy with how good I did. I?d come home with As and still he?d tell me to do better and would push and push me till one day I said ?F**k it. No more.?

So began my rise to rebellion. I?ve been rebellious ever since.

So Amnesty have now finally started campaigning properly on my behalf, you say? That?s nice of them. What took them so long may I be so bold to ask?

June 28: The prison food isn?t helping with my blood pressure or my cholesterol or my constant heartburn and acid reflux. So I am going to see if I can start buying my food from commissary instead. Nothing but oatmeal and sunflower seeds. It?s time to start eating healthy. I?m not getting any younger and my health is that of a 50-year-old if not older. I need to start taking better care of myself before I keel over and die prematurely.

June 30: Have you talked yet about starting the process of getting me a prison transfer to a Scottish prison, just in case these c***s only overturn my sentence?

I?d like to have everything ready just in case. That way I won?t have to wait three or four months or so after the transfer.

I have a sneaky feeling that that is all they are going to do babe.
They are never going to admit they made a mistake.

So chances are they will either deny my appeal, which I don?t see happening or they will just overturn my sentence.

Overturning my conviction would mean admitting they are wrong and made a mistake and they just aren?t going to do that babe.

July 3: As always babe it was great getting to talk to you today and hearing your bonnie wee voice. Even when it?s nagging it?s still like music to my ears. It is tae ye ken. Honest.

July 7: Was talking to Ken (Ken Parsigian, lawyer) and he thinks we will probably get a decision from the court by September babe.

He also thinks that the court is not going to admit they have convicted an innocent man and that they will more than likely just overturn my death sentence and give me life imprisonment instead. I am inclined to agree with him on that.

The court knows that if they declare me innocent, it will not only make their judicial system look bad but, will also open the door to a huge lawsuit by me and that is something they are going to avoid at ALL cost!

Their best option is simply to overturn my death sentence and give me life instead. Saves them a lot of hassle and money.

So that?s exactly what I?m expecting them to do babe. And given that this is probably what will happen, I believe it would be a good idea if we started work on arranging for a prison transfer to Scotland now.

If we can arrange it now we won?t have to worry about it later on. It could take several months to arrange it, so I?d rather we start trying to arrange it now so we have it standing by for when we get the court?s decision.

July 8: Karen writes: I haven?t written much for a while because I have felt all at odds with myself and with a lot of things.

I feel sort of detached from the campaign and even Kenny right now.
It?s like all these other people are doing stuff and don?t even include me much anymore as if I am not part of it all.

Feeling detached from Kenny that sounds an odd thing to say but it?s the only way I can describe it.

The differences in our lives and living arrangements have become. He has this prison life and I am out here trying to have a ?normal? life.

Today we spoke as we do often. He keeps looking to me for information and news of the outside world. Sometimes I just want to talk to him about anything other than prison and what?s going on.

I said, ?Talk to me? ?I am talking to you, ya t** it?s you who isn?t talking?.
I asked why it always had to be me?

He told me, ?Because nothing ever happens here?.
Sometimes those 15-minute calls seem so short.
Other times it seems so long, when we have no new news to tell one another.

Frustration is what is causing this I know. The waiting is getting to us both more than we care to admit. The ?what if it goes all bad on us?? thoughts are never too far away.

Will it ever happen for us? In my heart I know it will but I keep thinking, ?Oh God I cant do this for more years? and then I feel awful because Kenny doesn?t have this choice.

Its not that I want to leave or anything but this is getting harder and harder as time goes on.

Last visit he said to me, ?You have considered leaving haven?t you??
I told him yes I had but not because of him. Because of the situation, it?s relentless and torture.

I know he was hurt because he has never considered it. Though he doesn?t seem to realise leaving is the easy way out in a way.

I couldn?t do it because I would always be worried about what was happening to him. Anyway, I am stuck as he reminds me constantly.

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July 20: (After being interviewed for the US television show American Justice) My decision will probably be within the next couple of months. I could be bloody free by the time they air it, or dead.

July 25: Still as madly and passionately in love with me as much as I am with you? Let me think about it you say? I miss and love you doll.

July 31: Three days left till my birthday. I can?t believe I?m going to be 39 years old. Where did all the years go? I?ve spent almost half my life in prison.

August 4: I know all this waiting on the court to give us a ruling has you on edge. Trust me I know what it?s like babe. I?ve gone through it so often that I?ve lost count. I waited a good two years one time! It still doesn?t make it any easier though.

The waiting is the hardest part of it all. I truly hate the waiting with a passion.

I wish they would just give me a ruling one way or another!!
Hopefully we will hear something soon eh? I bloody hope so.

August 17: I will love you throughout this life and throughout all our next lives for all eternity baby.

You are my universe, my everything and that will never change.
You make life bearable and even worth living.

Thank you for being a part of my life and for all you do and have done.
Take care baby . I miss and love you with all that I am.

September 13: Hi Babe, So still miss me and love me as much as I do you? Good I?m right glad to hear it so I am. God knows how I truly miss and love you babe. I miss you and love you so much it bloody hurts.

I know at times I seem very distant and aloof and somewhat cold babe, and for that I am sorry. I don?t mean to be. It?s just the moods I get into and this hostile atmosphere.

I?m not trying to push you away, certainly not on purpose anyway. I really do love you and I really do want us to be together if I get out. Or rather when I get out. I want us to be together more than anything and am truly looking forward to us spending the rest of our lives together. Honest!
I may not act like it at time but I truly do.

You mean the world to me babe. Never before have I ever loved anyone as much as I love you.

You truly complete me in every way and I thank God everyday for bringing you into my life.

I couldn?t ask for a better wife, a better friend, better partner or a better lover.

I must have done something right in God?s eyes to have been given you.

September 27: Well I guess you  don?t love me anymore since you hung up the phone on me. That wasn?t nice at all. I was going to call you back but then decided not to. Don?t know why you hung up anyway.

I?m sorry I can?t be more to your liking. Given my situation and the environment I live in 24 hours a day, it?s hard to be anything more. All I can do is try babe. If that?s not good enough for you then I don?t know what else to tell you.

Right now I am in the wrong frame of mind to write anything. I don?t know when I will call you again. I think I?ll just leave it until you decide you want me to call again. I?m sure you?ll get word to me somehow if you do.

I?m sorry for the way things seem to be going between us.

October 3: from Karen.
I think you do realise why I hung up.
It wasn?t hard to take what you said the wrong way but I will write about this to you from here today.

It has nothing to do with you not being to my liking you idiot.
Just because I hung up doesn?t mean I don?t love you. Wish you would quit thinking this.

I got angry and frustrated at you and couldn?t express it without sounding angry so it was best I left the situation!

I realise and understand that the pressure right now on both of us is immense with waiting for the outcome of this appeal.

I know you are having a hard time babe.

October 20: Counting the days to your visit. Hopefully, this will be our last visit behind bars so to speak.

I really wish to f**k this court would get in gear and give me a decision one way or another. All this waiting is really getting to me babe.

I feel constantly frustrated, anxious and truly aggravated beyond belief.
There?s no way in hell it should have to take this long to get a decision.

October 30: (During a visit to Death Row with the News of the World by Karen) Hopefully this will be the last time you come over here babe, to visit anyway.

Next time it?ll hopefully be to bring me home. And hopefully not in a casket.

Actually babe, I think we should hear something from the court real soon.

November 7: It is six months since we filed my appeal. Normally they give you a decision in six months. All this waiting is truly driving me f***ing crazy.

The waiting has always been the worst of it but it?s even more so now. I feel like I?m on the edge, so anxious and frustrated. It?s never gotten to me like this before.

News of World Opinion.

Kennys fight is over

For years people scoffed at the mere suggestion that Death Row Scot Kenny Richey might be innocent.

Brave Karen Torley took up his cause in 1995 and the Scottish News of the World was the first to highlight the battle.

It took an age and several more appeals, before politicians became interested in the case.

But finally this week, a US court ruled that Kenny's trial and the evidence was flawed.

Now he is likely to be released within a few months.

At last justice is being done.