Death row Scot hospitalised hours before release

A SCOTTISH man who spent 20 years on death row before his sentence was overturned was hospitalised yesterday, just hours before he planned to enter a plea that would have freed him.

Ken Richey, 43, had been expected to plead no contest in a court hearing yesterday and be sentenced to time already served in the 1986 death in Ohio of a toddler in an apartment fire.

His attorney, Ken Parsigian, said Richey was getting a heart catheter but he was unsure what his client’s medical condition was.

“It’s serious enough that he clearly won’t be available today,” said Mr Parsigian.

“The good news is thank goodness it happened now, when he was close to a hospital.”

Richey had heart problems in the past and was taking nitroglycerin tablets as treatment, said Mr Parsigian. The hearing was postponed until January 8, though his lawyer said it could be held sooner.

“This is just a delay. What are you going to do?” said Mr Parsigian. “As soon as he’s well enough, we’ll go back and get this done.”

Richey, whose death sentence was overturned earlier this year, agreed to enter the plea deal that would allow him to go home to Scotland.

He was to have entered no contest pleas to attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangering and breaking and entering, said the lawyer.

Richey was originally convicted of setting a fire that killed two-year-old Cynthia Collins in 1986. He stayed on death row, once coming within an hour of being executed, until a federal appeals court determined in August that his lawyers mishandled his case.

The state was set to try him again in March and to seek another death sentence. Instead, Richey had planned to plead no contest to the state’s charge he told the toddler’s mother he would babysit the girl, but that he didn’t and left her in harm’s way, said Mr Parsigian.

“We would never agree to anything on murder or arson or a guilty plea,” he said.

Richey had planned to share a celebratory beer with his brother, who still lives in Ohio, before leaving for Scotland to spend Christmas with his mother.