Kenny's mum to welcome him back with steak dinner

Mrs Richey said she remained "a bit frightened" about her son coming home after so long apart and said that both of them had "changed so much over the years" and would have to work hard to rebuild their relationship.

Richey previously told his ex-fiancee and campaigner for his release from Death Row, Karen Torley, that he was hoping for a dinner of steak, mushrooms, fried onions and chips.

"He must think I'm as rich as Andrew Carnegie!" said his mother. "No, seriously, I'll make him whatever he wants.

"We've been apart for a long time, so I must confess I feel a bit frightened about it all. We'll need to get to know each other again. He's also been through a lot and there's his health, too.

"He'll be staying with me when he gets back and we'll then look for a flat for him in the city.

"Kenny hasn't made any plans for what he will do when he comes back. It's all changed so fast."

Mrs Richey was 17 and working as a shopgirl at Parker Stores in Bristo Street in 1961 when she met James Richey, a young American serviceman.

Within a year, the couple married and moved to Holland, where Kenny was born. The young family then moved to America where Eileen struggled to cope with life first in Ohio and then in Birmingham, Alabama.

She moved back to Edinburgh with her three sons, Kenny, Tom and Steven, who each left to return to the US in later years.

Kenny Richey was rushed to the St Rita's Medical Centre on December 19 after complaining of chest pains just hours before he was due to be set free after 21 years on Death Row.

His lawyer, Ken Parsigian, managed to negotiate with prosecutors to move the date to Thursday in a bid to get his client home sooner after the judge originally set a January 8 hearing.

Mr Parsigian said today: "Kenny will be back home soon. We just need to go through these final steps."

Richey is expected to plead no contest to attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangering and breaking and entering.

He was originally sentenced to death in 1987 after he was convicted of an arson attack on an apartment block in Ohio in which a two-year-old died.