Appeal hope for death row Scot

Published on Sunday 25 April 2004 01:00

KENNY Richey, the Scots-born former marine on death row in America, may have won a last-minute appeal to save him from lethal injection.

Edinburgh-born Richey has maintained his innocence since being convicted of arson and the aggravated murder of a two-year-old child in a fire in Ohio in 1986.

The 39-year-old has been on death row for 18 years after refusing a plea-bargain.

Richey, whose claim of innocence was backed this month in a Commons motion signed by more than 150 MPs, was just one hearing away from execution.

Now the federal appeals court for the US Sixth Circuit, one level below the Supreme Court, has sent his case back to be reconsidered by judges in Ohio.

They suggest that Richey should either be tried again or set free because prosecutors broke the law when they sought the death penalty at his trial.

However, the Ohio court still has the power to reject the federal judges’ findings.

Richey must now wait for talks by Ohio judges to decide whether he lives or dies.

Amnesty International have said that Richey’s claim of innocence is one of the "most compelling" it has ever seen in a US death case.