Death Row Inmate Wins Claim

A federal judge has given the state 90 days to retry the case of a man whose conviction and death sentence in the killing of a two-year-old girl were overturned.

A federal appeals court ruled earlier this year that Kenneth Richey had incompetent legal counsel at his original trial in the 1986 death of Cynthia Collins.

But Attorney General Jim Petro says the evidence supports the conviction.

Petro asked U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Gaughan to postpone a retrial while his office appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. Gaughan ruled against Petro, saying the state has 90 days to retry Richey or release him.

Richey has citizenship both in the U.S. and Great Britain where filmmakers have produced two documentaries questioning Richey's guilt.

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Prosecutors say Richey intended to kill his ex-girlfriend but ended up killing the child in a fire in the northwest Ohio town of Columbus Grove.