Death row Scot faces retrial over girl killed 19 years ago

DEATH row Scot Kenny Richey is to be retried over the death of a two-year-old girl killed in an Ohio fire 19 years ago, a US prosecutor said yesterday.

Richey's murder conviction was overturned by an appeals court in April, giving the state 90 days to retry him or set him free.

Putnam County prosecutor, Gary Lammers, said: "It is my decision that there is sufficient evidence to seek new charges.

"The evidence supports that Mr Richey set the fire that callously ended this little girl's life."

Richey has protested his innocence ever since he was sentenced to death in 1987.

Mr Lammers said he had reviewed the evidence and consulted investigators who worked on the case and witnesses who testified in the original trial.

The new charges to be brought against Richey will be determined by a grand jury. Mr Lammers said he would not preclude the jury from returning any legally supported charge, "including even aggravated murder with capital specifications".

When the original conviction was thrown out, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals said Richey could not be retried on the same statute that brought the death penalty at his 1987 trial.

Richey was convicted by a three-judge panel of aggravated murder, aggravated arson, breaking and entering, and child endangering.

The charges stemmed from a June 30, 1986 fire at an Ohio apartment that killed two-year-old Cynthia Collins.

On the evening of June 29, 1986, Richey went to a party to celebrate the fact he was about to return home to Edinburgh.

He got drunk and stumbled off. Later that night a fire broke out at a nearby apartment block.

Two-year-old Cynthia Collins was trapped in her bedroom and died from smoke inhalation.

The next day Richey was arrested and charged with her murder.

The court was told Richey started the fire out of jealousy, in a bid to kill former girlfriend Candy Barchet who was asleep with her new boyfriend in the apartment below.

Prosecutors claimed the smoke alarm had been disconnected and that Richey had climbed into the flat, carrying two heavy cans of petrol.

Despite the fact that Richey's hand was in a plaster cast and that he was incredibly drunk, he had allegedly managed to achieve this feat without making a sound.

Forensic tests could find no trace of petrol on Richey's clothes and the cans were never found.

It was the disconnected smoke alarm which landed Richey a death sentence as it made the so-called crime pre-meditated.

This, despite evidence from a witness who said Cynthia's mother had disconnected it earlier that day when she was cooking pork chops.

During the trial Richey twice rejected plea-bargain deals which would have spared his life if he admitted starting the fire.

It emerged that Cynthia Collins had a history of playing with matches and had started fires in the past.

Richey has escaped 13 appointments with the electric chair. His closest call, in 1994, was delayed when he was granted a stay.