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British national on death row released from Ohio prison after 21 years in jail

Kenneth Richey, right, a US-British citizen who was on death row for two decades until his sentence was overturned, stops at a restaurant after being freed in Lima, Ohio. PHOTO: AP

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.

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."
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