Toldedo Blade Editorial Supporting Retrial for Kenny

Nonetheless, Putnam County Prosecutor Gary Lammers has made the correct decision to seek new charges from a grand jury and put Richey on trial again. To do otherwise would be to disrespect the death of Cynthia Collins, who was only 2 years old when she perished in the fire.

Crime victims often are lost in the shuffle of long-running court cases, and this one is a good example.

The girl died in an upstairs apartment fire that prosecutors contended was set by Richey in a failed attempt to kill his former girlfriend and her new boyfriend, who were in an apartment below.

Despite his claims of innocence, Richey was convicted of aggravated murder and arson and was sentenced to die. Both a state appeals court and the Ohio Supreme Court subsequently agreed.

But in January of this year the conviction finally was overturned by a federal appeals court, which ordered Richey freed from prison or retried.

The court ruled that the state had failed to prove that Richey intended to kill the girl, a key finding necessary to invoke the death penalty at that time. The court also held that Richey's lawyer was so incompetent that he failed to challenge obviously questionable evidence of arson.

A new trial should put those questions to rest and demonstrate the guilt or innocence of Richey, a British subject who became an international cause celebre during his years on death row.

In 1992 the European Parliament approved a resolution asking that Richey's life be spared. British lawmakers intervened, and Pope John Paul II made an appeal on his behalf.

Because of the wide interest, The Blade investigated the case thoroughly and, in 1998, we concluded that a full review of the evidence was merited in federal court.

The wheels of justice turn slowly - 19 years in this case - but it is not too late to set the record straight.

The memory of Cynthia Collins demands it.

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