The short list of high points in the case

Here are some of the most striking facts of the case:

• Kenny had broken his hand a week earlier and it was in a plaster cast. A witness also saw him drunk, collapsing in the bushes outside the apartment block. He could hardly have climbed up a steep roof on a shed, over to a balcony and into the flat holding gas cans without making a lot of noise - if at all.
  His ex girlfriend and her new boyfriend, who claimed to be light sleepers, had heard nothing even though their bedroom window was open and just meters from the shed.
• No traces of accelerants could be found on Kenny's clothing or boots, even though he were supposed to have splashed such liquids over the carpet and floor.
  Nor were any gas-cans ever found, and the person from whom such should allegedly have been stolen couldn't tell if he were missing any.
• No evidence that Kenny disabled the smoke alarm was presented, in fact one of Hope's friends reported that the smoke alarm had been disconnected earlier during the day.
  Nevertheless the panel of Judges stated that the disconnecting of the smoke alarm made the crime premeditated - which was the basis for the Death Penalty verdict.
• The building owner were authorized to gut the flat. Had arson been suspected, no such authorization would have been given - the flat would have had to be sealed off for investigation.
  As it is, evidence was taken to the dump and then later to the local sheriff's forecourt where it was placed near a petrol pump.
• The local fire chief had been called to the flat on three separate occasions in the preceding weeks to investigate the mysterious appearance of smoke in the flat.
  Moreover Cynthia Collins had started fires in the flat more than once.
  The defense didn't get this information.
• The forensic tests that had initially been carried out on the carpet were wholly unreliable - affidavits testifying to this fact was given by two of Americas most respected scientists in the field and submitted on appeal.
  Tests on the carpet made by the same scientists showed no ignitable substances at all.
  They also testified that the characteristics left by the fire in the flat were not consistent with arson but with accidental fire.