New deadline set for death row Scot Richey's case

Richey, 40, originally from Edinburgh, won an appeal earlier this year against his conviction of the murder of Cynthia Collins, the two-year-old daughter of a friend in an arson attack in 1986.

Richey, who has spent the last 18 years on death row in an Ohio prison, has now been told the state will have to decide what to do within a 90-day time period starting from 25 May.

Karen Torley, Richey?s fiancé, said last night that she now hoped he would be free and able to return to Scotland on 25 August. She said:

"We've just heard that the 90-day clock effectively starts on May 25th from which point if there is no retrial Kenny will be freed. The state tried to overturn the successful appeal as well as this 90-day countdown but they have failed on both counts.

"We are all hoping that this will be the beginning of the end of this long ordeal but the process is complicated."