A British man who once came within days of being executed was released from an Ohio prison on Monday after spending more than 21 years on death row, court officials said.
"He's just numb," lawyer Ken Parsigian said. "He can't believe it's true and is trying to catch up with the feelings ... It's like Rip Van Winkle waking up after 21 years. Everything new."
Kenneth Richey, 43, was sentenced to die for arson and the 1986 killing of a two-year-old girl whom he had promised to babysit but did not.
PHOTO: AP
Richey, who was 23 at the time, has always insisted that the fire that killed young Cynthia Collins was started accidentally.
He was initially found guilty of having set the blaze in a fit of jealous rage over a former girlfriend who lived downstairs.
During his long stay on death row, Richey twice rejected plea bargains that would have spared him from the electric chair and once came within about three days of being executed.
The case of Richey, who moved to the US from Scotland when he was 18, became a popular cause in Britain, and high profile figures such as actor Susan Sarandon and former British prime minister Tony Blair had called for his case to be reopened.
Richey was finally granted a new trial after the state of Ohio acknowledged that his first trial was flawed.
After a lengthy process, an appeals court in August overturned for the second time the conviction and death sentence.
He pleaded no contest on Monday to breaking and entering, attempted involuntary manslaughter and endangering a child, a deputy clerk at the Putnam County Common Pleas Court said.
A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but instead a statement that no defense will be offered.
Richey's plea in no way indicated he was directly responsible for the fire or the child's death, Parsigian said in a telephone interview from the restaurant where Richey was celebrating his release with his family.
"All it means is she asked him to babysit, he agreed to babysit, he failed to babysit and she ended up dying," Parsigian said.
Richey was sentenced to 21 years in prison and given credit for time served.
He was planning to return to his native Scotland yesterday.
"There's no question he'll come back to the US," Parsigian said, citing Richey's many family ties here. "But he'll never come back to Putnam County, Ohio."
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese