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Saturday, 04 June 2005
Punjab.com
Scotsman Kenneth Richey, on death row for murder in the US, has had his death sentence and conviction overturned because he received incompetent counsel at his trial.
A federal appeals court in Cincinnati threw out Richey's conviction for killing a two-year-old girl,
The Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Richey must be retried within 90 days or set free by the state of Ohio.
Richey, who has maintained he is innocent, was convicted of killing Cynthia Collins, who died in a 1986 fire at her mother's apartment in the north-west Ohio town of Columbus Grove. Prosecutors said Richey intended to kill his ex-girlfriend, but ended up killing the child.
Richey, who has dual UK-US citizenship, left Scotland in 1981, aged 18, to live with his American father in Ohio State.
In June 1986, one week before his return to the Britain, he was arrested for the murder.
Since his conviction some months later, he has been sitting on death row, waiting to be strapped into Old Sparky, Ohio's electric chair.