Family united in a long fight for justice

Fast forward 34 years and the lives of the three brothers have changed as much as society. All three quit Edinburgh to find a new life in America, the land of the free. They found it, but it was not what they had hoped. 

Kenny, Tom and Steven Richey are still as close as they were when the family picture was taken in 1971, when they were aged just seven, four and 18 months respectively. Not that they see each other often. In fact, Kenny and Tom haven't clapped eyes on each other for almost 20 years, as they are separated by the 2000 miles that lie between their American jails. Steven has seen them intermittently during visits, while the rest of his life he lives quietly with his wife Kelly in Cloverdale, Ohio.

Kenny's case is well documented. The world knows him as the "innocent Scot on Death Row". Today, he turns 41 - and in a letter to the Evening News,  he gives voice to his frustration and anger at his continued incarceration.

He has spent 18 years behind bars in the Mansfield Correctional Institution for starting the fire which killed two-year-old Cynthia Collins. Kenny, who landed in Ohio to live with his father Jim in 1982, was blamed by the authorities and the toddler's mother, Hope, for the child's death. The judges didn't think differently. After a four-and-a-half day trial before a three-judge panel, Kenny was sentenced to death. He has proclaimed his innocence and appealed his sentence ever since.

Tom, on the other hand, has always admitted his guilt. The 38-year-old is serving a 65-year sentence which was handed down to him for murder. He shot and killed a shop assistant during a bungled robbery while he was high on LSD in 1986.

The pair were jailed within months of each other - shocking their mother Eileen who still lives in Dalry, and their father Jim, who now lives in Camano Island, Washington.

But from his Washington State prison, Tom Richey has been campaigning for the freedom of his older brother. His concern about Kenny's plight is such that he has now written the story of his sibling's fight for justice. His book, Kenny Richey: Death Row Scot, has just been published by Edinburgh's Black and White Publishing, and in it he tells how he and Kenny came to the States, how their lives changed for the worse, and why he believes Kenny should never have been convicted.

Speaking on the phone from Clallam Bay Corrections Centre in his transatlantic twang - and with the odd word of Edinburgh dialect slipping into his speech - he says: "I have always felt in some way responsible for Kenny being found guilty.

"I think there was a definite feeling that because I had committed murder, then Kenny must have as well. The prosecution even said to a Grand Jury that 'if one brother is a murderer, it's likely the other is too', but that isnae the case.

"I realise people will think that I believe that because I'm his brother, but I've done a lot of research into Kenny's case and there is just no evidence to convict him. I have tried to be as unemotional as possible in my research and writing, but basically Kenny is the victim of a screwed-up justice system.

"As far as I could discover he's behind bars because the prosecutor in his case was a friend of someone who disliked Kenny."

In his book, Tom alleges three months after Kenny arrived in the States he was arrested and pleaded guilty to a count of assault and brandishing a weapon after having a street brawl with his then-girlfriend's father and two of his friends after they demanded he return a ring she had given to him. Unfortunately for Kenny, deputy prosecutor Randall Basinger was a friend of his ex-girlfriend's father.

Kenny ended up with a two month sentence, but Tom claims at the end of this trial, Basinger said: "If you ever step out of line in my county, I'll get you." He adds though: "It's difficult to prove that he said this, but being a friend of the victim of that case is something he has never refuted. I certainly believe he carried that with him when Kenny was fighting for his life in front of him three years later."

Tom admits a criminal life was what lay ahead for Kenny in Edinburgh. At 14, he smashed a shop window for alcohol, which led to breaking open parking meters, shoplifting, being drunk and disorderly, even assault.

His book suggests that his parents turned a blind eye to such activities - although his dad did use the "flat side of a wooden clothes brush" as discipline - because they were consumed with their disintegrating marriage and a failing coach business.

"Maybe it was because of these family problems, that Kenny, feeling neglected, misbehaved in order to gain attention. As our family foundation crumbled Steven and I never acted up, although we did turn on each other. Kenny, it seemed, turned against the world," he writes.

America offered a different life, so when their dad Jim went back to Ohio, Kenny and Tom followed. The pair both joined the services - Tom the US Army, Kenny the Marines - before they ended up in jail.

Tom says his early life in prison was traumatic and involved a lot of fighting - "I delivered a few Glasgow kisses and they left me alone" - and it was four years into his sentence before an 18-month spell in solitary confinement gave him time to think.

Although he has not been able to speak to his brother since his arrest in 1986 they communicate twice weekly by letter and Kenny's persistent claims of innocence convinced him.

"I did doubt him early on, but because he wouldn't plea bargain and continued to maintain his innocence I changed my mind. I believed him and I was shocked by the decision to convict him.

"You imagine that the American legal system is the best in the world, but I know it's very flawed," says Tom. "Kenny is a victim of that. I'm not, I'm serving my time, but he never committed the crime for which he was convicted.

"I also think there's a problem in that the court system hates to admit it's made a mistake, and then there's the fact that Kenny isn't an American - that makes it harder for him to get his story over."

He adds: "I was even more shocked that the prosecutor for Ohio said that, even though new evidence might show Kenny's innocence, the US and state constitution still allowed him to be executed, which is just ridiculous. It really annoyed me because they were admitting his innocence but said 'we're going to kill him anyway'.

"I actually sat down and wrote the book in 1992. It was all in longhand and later I typed it out, but it is only now I have managed to get a publisher. It has been rewritten a few times because I wanted to make sure it wasn't an emotional response, I wanted it to be based solely on all the facts which prove Kenny's innocence."

Tom, who is visited by his father once a month and speaks to Steven once a month too, also hopes that both he and his brother will be freed and reunited in Scotland later this year with their mother. Kenny is awaiting retrial, but Tom could be released soon - judicial reforms in the US have seen long sentences slashed.

"I don't think it will be too difficult to re-adjust to real life," he says. "I'll definitely be heading back to Edinburgh because it is home."

Kenny Richey: Death Row Scot by Tom Richey is published by Black & White Publishing, priced £9.99