State has 90 days to retry or release U.S.-British citizen

The evidence still supports the conviction of Kenneth Richey in the 1986 death of Cynthia Collins, Attorney General Jim Petro said.

Petro had asked U.S. District Judge Patricia A. Gaughan to postpone any decision on a retrial while his office appeals the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in January that Richey had incompetent legal counsel at his original trial.

Gaughan denied the request Friday.

Petro has until July 14 to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court traditionally hears very few appeals of this sort.

Prosecutors said Richey intended to kill his ex-girlfriend but ended up killing the child in the fire in the northwest Ohio town of Columbus Grove. Richey maintained he did not start the fire but acknowledged being so intoxicated that night that he did not remember everything.

The case has received wide attention in Great Britain, where filmmakers produced two documentaries questioning Richey's guilt. British citizens and politicians wrote thousands of letters to news organizations and government offices to protest his conviction.

Richey has hired high-profile London publicist Max Clifford to market his story.