Basinger

"The Honorable"  Randall Basinger

"A quick check of dates would show that I ran for Judge in May 1986 and the murder happened at the end of June. The election was over before the murder even happened."

A quick check of the dates with the local newspaper, The Lima News, tells a different story - according to their files Basinger was elected Judge in November 1986.

Court Transcripts from December 2 1986 also show Basinger was keen to ensure he tried the case personally.

He asked the court to clarify whether Kenny intended to change his mind about waiving his right to a jury trial in favor of a three-judge panel.
He said: "I am under some time constraints in that I would be out of the prosecutor's office in April, and should there be a last withdraw of that waiver it would probably preclude me from trying the case."

10 days later - the prosecution offered Kenny a plea bargain of 11 yrs & 4 months in exchange for a guilty plea to the lesser charges.

Misconduct

• Withholding evidence that was vital to defence of Kenny Richey.
• Allowing a tape recording of Kenny's interview by Cryer, after Kenny told them to write his statement down.
• Harassing witnesses into making statements in court.

Witnesses have said they only said what he wanted them to say.

Quote from Shirley Baker, prosecution witness: "they would put words . . .the words that we would put out, they would change the words. You know how people will turn things around, I do believe that's what they did on quite a few of the conversations that were made."

Peggy states: "I said what I thought the [prosecution] attorneys wanted me to say."

Prof. Liebman comments:

"The profile of a case where problems get into the case, and where reversal is likely is one where the prosecutor is under a lot of public pressure to get a death sentence. Where the evidence is weak often circumstantial, oftentimes certain kinds of weak forensic evidence, hair evidence, shoe prints evidence, and that kind of evidence. And then a weak lawyer on the other side, so that you have a prosecutor pushing very hard, and a defence lawyer not pushing very hard back. And that's where problems tend to be in these cases."

The "Solid" Case

Mr. Basinger told the panel he had a solid case against Richey, even though much of his evidence was circumstantial. Even the county prosecutor Mr. Gershutz isn't convinced that all of the evidence that he and assistant prosecutor Randall Basinger presented to the judges is solid.

Mr. Gershutz also admits he remains puzzled about Judge Corrigan's ruling on the disconnected smoke alarm, which helped get Richey the death penalty even though the issue was never raised by the prosecution. "It was important to the judges," he says. "Randy [Basinger] or me never argued it. I don't know how it got down."

As a result, the prosecutor concedes that pro-Richey supporters have at least one valid point.

"You can argue whether or not the death penalty is appropriate, not whether he [set the fire]. That's the way I look at this. The real fight is whether he should be put to death. He didn't want to kill her. And that's a fair debate."

The three-judge panel also based its sentencing, like its verdict, on non-existent evidence

There was no evidence at trial that Richey had disconnected the smoke detector.

Randall E. Bills, the accident reconstruction specialist who analyzed the smoke detector and testified for the State at trial, concluded that he could not tell "whether the smoke detector was operational at the time of the fire." Trial Tr. at 864.

The prosecution itself has acknowledged in open court that Richey did not intend to harm Cynthia Collins. Richey attempted to save the life of Cynthia Collins.

In light of the prosecution's admission in open court that there was no evidence that Richey intended to kill Cynthia Collins, his conviction and sentencing on that basis violates his rights under the Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.