Richey close to release
Kenny Richey, the Scot on Ohio's death row for 18 years, must be retried within 90 days or released
A request to overturn a US appeal court's decision to free death row Scot Kenny Richey has been thrown out.
Richey, who has been under a death sentence for 18 years, must now be released by the State of Ohio unless it says it plans to mount a retrial within 90 days.
He was convicted of the murder of two-year-old Cynthia Collins in an arson attack in 1986 but won an appeal against his conviction in January this year. Yesterday the Ohio Attorney General failed in an attempt to have the appeal reheard before a full bench of the appeal court.
Since the 1987 trial scientific evidence has been called into question and one witness has changed her statement. The appeal court's decision gave among its reasons the "incompetent" performance of Richey's trial lawyer.
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