Meeting to Decide Future of Death Row Briton

The decision whether to retry the entire case is in the hands of Putnam County prosecutor Gary Lammers, who will meet representatives from the office of Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro tomorrow.

He has until September 1 to either retry Richey or set him free.

The Scot's lawyer, Ken Parsigian, said tomorrows meeting would be pivotal and that Mr Lammers could make his decision within the next 2 weeks.

"I remain cautiously optimistic that Mr Lammers will decide it is not in the countys best interest to retry this case," he said.

"Aside from the cost factors, the case is significantly weaker now. Key witnesses are no longer available, their scientific evidence was completely destroyed and it gets hard to prove anything after 19 years, memories fade.

"They have a snowball's chance in hell of getting a conviction that is upheld beyond reasonable doubt any more."

Meanwhile, the state has until July 14 to appeal against the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Richey had incompetent legal counsel at his original trial.

"We are still going to pursue this and do intend to file our appeal to the Supreme Court before the deadline," said a spokeswoman for Mr Petro.

Mr Parsigian is confident that the court, which is the highest in the land, will not hear the appeal, although he said the decision would not be made before October.

"This is not a strong case, it has no affect on future cases and only affects one person," he said.

"Why would they take a case that affects one person?"

If Mr Lammers decides not to retry the case he is under no obligation to make an announcement before September 1.

However, if he does, Richey could be released but would likely be barred from returning to Scotland pending a decision from the Supreme Court.

Many are optimistic that his 18-year ordeal will soon come to an end.

PR guru Max Clifford has already been hired to co-ordinate his publicity and control media access to Richey if and when he returns home.

The 41-year-old was convicted and sentenced to death in 1987 for the arson death of 2-year-old Cynthia Collins.

Prosecutors said Richey started the fire at the house in Putnam County in June 1986 to kill Collins mother, Richey's former girlfriend.

British MPs and leading human rights campaigners have fought on Richeys behalf for years, pleading a "compelling" case of innocence.

The controversial case has also won support from the European Parliament,a host of celebrities and the late Pope John Paul II.

(source: The Scotsman)