Second Trial begins today in Ottawa for Kenny

OTTAWA, Ohio: A U.S.-British citizen whose conviction and death sentence was overturned was to return today to the courthouse where he was sentenced to die two decades ago.

Kenneth Richey, 43, is again facing charges that he set an apartment fire that killed a 2-year-old girl in 1986. His lawyers were expected to ask a judge Tuesday to set a bond that will allow Richey to be released from the Putnam County jail while he awaits a new trial in the death of Cynthia Collins in Columbus Grove in northwest Ohio.

In hopes Richey would be freed and would need street clothes, his father, James Richey, arrived for the hearing carrying shoes, and his brother, Steve, brought a blue polo and a pair of tan trousers with the tags still attached.

James Richey said nothing had changed in the courtroom over the years, and his son's position also was still the same.

''He didn't start the fire, he didn't kill the little girl. He's not about to admit to anything like that,'' James Richey said, as he and other family members waited to enter the courtroom.

''Many people doubted him, many hated him,'' the elder Richey said, fighting back tears.

Richey, who has dual citizenship, came within an hour of being executed 13 years ago.

He spent 20 years on death row until a federal appeals court determined in August that his lawyers mishandled his case and that expert testimony could have contended that the fire wasn't intentionally set.

The court ordered that Richey receive a new trial or be released. Prosecutors plan to try Richey again on aggravated murder, aggravated arson and child endangering charges. No trial date has been set.

Prosecutors said Richey set the blaze to get even with his former girlfriend, who lived in the same apartment building as the girl who died. He was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to die for setting the fire that killed Collins.

Some of the girl's family members came to court Tuesday wearing T-shirts and buttons with her picture. They declined to speak with reporters.

Richey grew up in Scotland and became a British citizen while in prison. He came to live with his American-born father in the early 1980s.

His case has drawn support from members of the British Parliament and the late Pope John Paul II.