New appeal launched to raise funds for Kenny

And his fiancee Karen Richey revealed that without funds she may not be able to contact Kenny for much longer.

Kenny, 41, who grew up in Edinburgh, was sentenced to death in 1986 after being found guilty of the murder of two-year-old Cynthia Collins, despite strong evidence he did not start the fire which killed her.

In January, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Kenny should be released or retried within 90 days but, since then, this deadline has been repeatedly held up by appeals from the state of Ohio.

Miss Richey - who adopted Kenny's name after they became engaged - has been paying for phone lines in America and the UK in order to keep in constant contact with Kenny. Through daily calls she has helped him fight for basic rights, and ensured he had a voice in the outside world.

After finally winning the appeal, no-one involved with the work to clear Kenny's name believed they would need to continue funding the campaign for much longer.

But the repeated delays to the appeal process by the state of Ohio, which is still unwilling to accept the verdict of the appeal court, that lawyers at the original trial had provided inadequate representation, have now dragged on so long the campaign is almost out of funds.

There is now an open appeal on the campaign website for money, to ensure Karen does not lose touch with Kenny. Karen said: "At the start of the campaign a lot of people came forward and made donations which helped us to start up the website and send off letters of appeal to the various bodies in America.

"It allowed us to get Kenny's story into the public eye and keep it there until finally we won the appeal this year.

"When that happened I must admit I thought it was over and I didn't expect to need any more funds. But it has just gone on so long since then that now I cannot afford to even keep the phone lines up and running.

"This means I can't keep in touch with Kenny and that would have a huge effect on us both. We speak every day and it's really good for him to have someone outside of prison to talk to, especially now when he doesn't know how long he will have to wait."

Despite being in essence a free man following the appeal decision in January, Kenny has been kept in a maximum security wing on Death Row.

His fate is expected to be decided next month.

Anyone who wishes to help should log on to www.kennyrichey.org.

THE FACTS

KENNY RICHEY was born in Holland in 1964 to an American father, Jim, and Scottish mother Eileen. His parents settled in Edinburgh when he was a baby, but in 1982, after their divorce, he moved to Ohio to live with his father.

In 1986 two-year-old Cynthia Collins died in a fire in the apartment complex next to Richey's. He is accused of starting the fire to kill an ex-girlfriend who lived there.

Despite his denials, he faced a four-and-a-half-day trial in front of a three-judge panel, where he was found guilty and sentenced to the electric chair.

Since then more evidence has emerged which casts increasing doubt on the conviction. Several witnesses have changed their testimony and forensic evidence presented at the time has been almost completely discredited.

By 2003, more than 13 dates had been set for Richey's execution, despite the fact he would have been free ten years earlier if he had accepted plea bargains and admitted murder.

In January this year, Richey finally won an appeal and the state of Ohio was ordered to release him or re-try him. But in June, after several attempts to overturn the appeal, Ohio's Putnam County prosecutor Gary Lammers announced his office was seeking a re-trial.