21 years on - freedom for Kenny Richey

NO-contest plea ends two decades on Death Row for Scot charged with arson and murder in US.

FOR more than two decades, he was told by prosecutors he would only ever leave prison in a coffin, at one point coming within one hour of being executed.

But Kenny Richey's long fight against the death sentence was finally over last night after a judge in the United States ordered him to be freed.

The 43-year-old Scot's momentous legal struggle ended where it had begun – in the same Ohio courtroom where he was sentenced to death in 1986 for killing two-year-old Cynthia Collins – as the state dropped murder and arson charges and accepted a plea bargain.

Richey, wearing a black shirt and tie and black trousers, chewed on his lip and stared blankly. He spoke about a dozen times during the course of the 30-minute hearing, simply to answer "Yes, sir" to the judge, Alan Travis, as the plea bargain was formally explained to him.

The judge noted that after 7,861 days, he was sentencing Richey to time served. "I'm ordering the sentence as proposed…time served. Mr Richey can be released."

Speaking before his release, Richey told The Scotsman: "They tried to kill me, they tried to break me and they nearly won – they nearly had me in that death chamber so many times. But in the end, it's the truth that wins.

"I've spent all my adult life behind bars and walking free is the dream that's kept me going. I'll go home and hug my mum so tight she won't know what's hit her. I'll lie on my back in the grass and gaze at the big sky and feel the wind in my hair – what's left of it – and let out the biggest roar you've ever heard. And then I'll start my life all over again."

Speaking outside court, Richey gave his first reaction as a free man: "It's been a long time coming."

Asked if there were any other innocent people on death row, he said: "There are innocent people on Ohio's death row – and they need your help."

There were at least 28, he said, and gave several names before urging investigators to look into their cases.

When asked if he was one of the innocent, he replied: "I am one."

Richey's conviction and sentence were overturned on appeal last year, resulting in him being removed from Death Row and cleared of torching a former girlfriend's flat in Columbus Grove, Ohio, killing Cynthia as she slept in an adjoining flat.

He had been due for retrial on the same charges in March. However, under yesterday's plea deal, he pleaded no contest to reneging on a promise to babysit Cynthia on the night she died – leaving her to die alone when fire broke out – but not to killing her by setting the fire himself.

His lawyer, Ken Parsigian, who has handled his case pro bono for the past 15 years, said: "This deal represents a complete capitulation by the state. What Kenny said he would never do is plead to murder or arson – and he's not."

He went on: "I've been a lawyer for 20 years and I've had huge wins for clients with billions of dollars at stake. But this is the case that means the most, that defines everything I believe in. This case didn't make a penny, but it proved a point – and the point is that we have a system in which everyone is entitled to quality representation and to justice.

"Kenny probably doesn't feel the system was vindicated here, because he paid such a price, but in the end the system worked."

Karen Torley, Richey's former fiance who led the campaign for his release, said she could hardly believe he was now free. "I spoke to Kenny only a few hours ago and he said he wouldn't believe it until it actually happens.

"Now it has happened, I can hardly believe it myself. The past few days have just been so emotional. This is the closing of a long and painful chapter – and the start of a new one," she said.

The decision to free Richey was not welcomed by Cynthia Collins' family. In a dramatic and emotional confrontation, her aunt, Valerie Binkley, pointed her finger at Richey as the judge prepared to release him and cried: "How do I go about putting into words what taking the life of a two-year-old means? I want you to know that you've fooled nobody, not me, not that baby…you will burn in hell."

After battling for so long to escape death, Richey has been warned by prosecutors that they have had death threats against him and his lawyer. As part of the deal in which he pleaded no contest to charges of child endangerment and involuntary manslaughter, Richey has been ordered to leave Ohio's Putnam County, where the crime happened, within 24 hours.

Mr Parsigian said: "There's a lot of strong feelings against Kenny in that place and the authorities don't want to take any risks. We didn't fight for nearly 22 years just to get into an incident when we get him out.

"I have told Kenny 'You never want to go back to that county for the rest of your life because, believe me, there are people there that don't trust you and who you shouldn't trust. Man, they'll even pick you up there for littering if they can.'"

Richey will be reunited with his mother, Eileen, at Edinburgh Airport tomorrow , after spending a night with his brother Steven, 37, who lives in Ohio.

But adjusting to a world that he last saw and experienced when Ronald Reagan was US president and Margaret Thatcher the British Prime Minister could be overwhelming, Mr Parsigian admitted.

"Kenny's very excited, obviously, but a little anxious about what the future holds. Let's face it, he's been away 21 and a half years. He's coming back to a world he doesn't recognise," he said.

Richey's hopes of hugging his son Sean, 22, whom he last held when he was a baby, will not be realised, however. Sean was arrested in Minnesota last month for violating his probation – imposed after he was charged with burglary and assault – while travelling to Ohio to see his father.

The Scot will be reunited with his Minnesota-based former wife, Wendy, with whom he has rekindled a relationship from behind bars in recent years, at a later date.

Mr Parsigian said: "He's excited about reconnecting with people. There are a lot of places he wants to go to; a lake he used to go fishing, places he would go in Scotland as a kid."

Clive Stafford Smith, human rights lawyer and campaigner for Richey, said: "After Kenny's heart scare, it is a tremendous relief to see him finally walk free. This is a great day for him and his family.

"There should be no mistake that this deal is nothing short of complete vindication for Kenny. The prosecutors no longer accuse him of murder or having anything to do with starting the fire. Instead, they have charged him with, essentially, failing to babysit. Now he must work to get his life back together."

It is understood Richey has sold his story to newspapers for a five-figure sum.