Kenny gets his trial AT LAST

He will be able to apply for bail and, if successful, he will be set free until his new trial begins.

The development comes after the Sixth Circuit Federal Court of Appeal in Cincinnati announced it was overturning his sentence earlier this month.

State prosecutors could have gone to the US Supreme Court to try to have the decision overturned, but instead decided to stage a new trial.

Brian Laliberte, Ohio deputy first assistant attorney general, said: "We will be retrying Mr Richey in the near future.

"We have taken a look at the Sixth Circuit Court's decision and, after consulting with the Putnum County Prosecutor, we have decided not to appeal the decision of the court."

He said that prosecutors will be preparing their new case over the next two to three months.

The Scot, 43, was sentenced to death on January 27 1987 after he was convicted of starting a fire in which a two-year-old girl died in Ohio in 1986.

He has always protested his innocence and the Sixth Circuit Federal Court of Appeal in Cincinnati overturned Richey's death sentence for a second time on August 10.

Richey was 18 when he left his mother's home in Edinburgh to live with his American father in Ohio.

In July 1986 he was arrested for the murder of two-year-old Cynthia Collins, who died in a fire at her mother's apartment.

The prosecution claimed he started the fire because his estranged former girlfriend and her new lover - supposedly the intended targets - lived in the flat beneath.

Protesting his innocence, Richey refused a plea bargain which would have led to an 11-year sentence for arson and manslaughter.

Richey's lawyer Ken Parsigian said: "Kenny has always wanted a chance to prove his innocence and this will give it to him."