More legal maneuvering in Richey case

Richey?s attorney, Ken Parsigian, of Boston, called the state?s motion filed in U.S. District Court in Toledo this week as ?desperation.? It?s the same motion state attorneys filed with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that was rejected. 

?This is a no-brainier. The Court of Appeals has already rejected it. She?s not going to go against the Court of Appeals,? Parsigian said. 

The motion seeks to place the case on hold while state attorneys ask the U.S. Supreme Court to accept the case. 

Parsigian replied immediately to the motion and pointed out the duplication to the district judge, he said. Parsigian expects the judge to rule quickly, which could be any day, he said. He also expects the judge to sign off on the case starting the clock on the 90 days to retry or release Richey, he said. 

Richey was sent to Ohio?s death row in 1987 for the 1986 death of 2-year-old Cynthia Collins. Cynthia died in a fire at a Columbus Grove apartment complex. Richey has maintained his innocence. 

In January, the 6th Circuit overturned Richey?s conviction saying his trial attorneys provided inadequate representation and that the charge of aggravated murder against Richey, as the law read in 1986, would only have applied if Richey had killed the person he allegedly intended to kill and not the young girl. 

Parsigian also is preparing several additional motions to file this week. He will ask the judge to define exactly what the 90 day time frame means since an Ohio Attorney General spokeswoman has said it means the process, not the trial, must start within 90 days. 

Parsigian will ask that Richey be released, or if the state plans to retry him, ask that the trial start within 90 days. Parsigian also wants Richey moved off death row and is preparing a motion over that issue, he said. 

?We?re going to keep fighting,? he said. 

Without a conviction, there is no reason Richey should be held on death row. In the eyes of the law, Richey is innocent until proved guilty and a defendant is kept in the county jail and given a chance at bond, he said. 

Parsigian said state attorneys are stalling and he?s going to put the pressure on them to move even if it?s an inconvenience to them. 

?Kenny has been on death row 19 years,? he said.