Richey's plea bargain Toledo Blade Editorial

Moreover, the plea bargain in this internationally watched case won't satisfy critics abroad who claim, with ample justification, that Richey was a victim of a rush to justice in a small U.S. town.

What the deal does do, however, is remind us that American law does not require that criminal suspects prove themselves innocent. The prosecution must prove guilt, and the case against Richey collapsed under the weight of some very shaky evidence.

The plea arrangement, delayed when Richey fell ill on Friday, will allow him to head back home across the Atlantic, his 20-year ordeal on Ohio's Death Row reduced to a fading nightmare. At one point, 13 years ago, he came within one hour of being executed.

Richey staunchly proclaimed his innocence, both before and after a three-judge panel convicted him of capital murder in 1987. After his conviction was overturned on a federal appeal last summer, he vowed in an interview with The Blade that he would never accept a plea deal to get out of prison because he didn't set the fire that killed Cynthia Collins, of Columbus Grove.

While he declared that he would prove his innocence or "die trying," Richey evidently succumbed to the lure of freedom, which is entirely understandable after two decades behind bars.

In pleading nolo contendere to charges of attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, and breaking and entering, Richey is not admitting to anything that suggests he caused the death of the child.

The prosecution claimed that Richey, in a jealous rage, set a fire in a Columbus Grove apartment complex with the intent to harm his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend. Instead, they escaped and the child, sleeping in an apartment on an upper floor, was killed.

Now the capital charges are being dropped and Richey will admit only that he had failed to baby-sit for the girl as he had promised her mother. But who in their right mind, we still wonder, would leave a 2-year-old home alone if the babysitter failed to show up?

One thing is certain: As an exhaustive investigation by The Blade showed, there were several crucial defects in Richey's trial. For example, his attorney never questioned the lack of expertise of the witness who testified that the fire was arson.

Nor was evidence presented that the dead girl had a propensity for playing with a lighter and had caused a couple of fires before the one in which she died.

As with many plea bargains, the one in this case is ultimately unsatisfying because it leaves loose ends, including what caused the fatal fire.

We recognize that key witnesses have recanted or died and the evidence is cold, but the legal system, however imperfect, finally functioned the way it is designed. That the process took more than 20 years is regrettable.

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