Kenny Richey Sites & Petitions

[thinkinkmesa]

Kenny Richey website.
torley.org/Kenny-Richey/Kenny-Richey/

Kenny's myspace page
www.myspace.com/justiceforkennyrichey

[thinkinkmesa]

Wed 24 Jan 2007
Kenny Richey faces make-or-break court hearing as he nears 20 years
on Death Row

JACQUI GODDARD
LAWYERS head to court in Ohio today for a make-or-break hearing into
the fate of Kenny Richey, the Scot who will mark his 20th anniversary
on Death Row this weekend.

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit will consider whether
the 42-year-old, who was imprisoned in 1987 for murder and arson,
should be granted a new trial on the basis that he received
inadequate legal representation at his original hearing and an unsafe
conviction.

Presenting a fresh trial more than two decades after the crime would
be a major challenge to prosecutors, whose efforts to get Richey into
the death chamber have been thwarted over the years by 13 court-
ordered stays of execution.

"Kenny's morale is like a rollercoaster at times," said his American
father, James Richey, 69, who lives in Washington state.

He added: "I have great faith in our justice system, but I have also
had my faith dashed so many times. Everything I live for is to see
Kenny walk free and this decision coming up is a big one. If they
rule against him, there's no place else he can go."

Richey, who was brought up in Edinburgh and moved to America at the
age of 18, denies that he was behind the blaze that swept through a
neighbour's flat in Ohio in June 1986, killing her two-year-old
daughter.

Amnesty International has described the case as "one of the most
compelling cases of apparent innocence that human rights campaigners
have ever seen".

Richey, who will not be present at today's hearing in Cincinnati, has
always protested his innocence.

http://news. scotsman. com/internationa l.cfm?id= 121522007

[thinkinkmesa]

Kenny Richey

Early media coverage of today's US 6th Circuit ruling ordering retrial or release of Kenny Richey: Jim Provance has this coverage for the Toledo Blade, entitled "Court rules state of Ohio must retry Richey in Putnam County arson death or release him." Sky News has this brief article, entitled "Death Penalty Scot's Sentence Overturned." Dan Sewell has this story for AP, entitled "Federal appeals court again throws out Richey's death sentence." The UK Sun has this coverage, entitled "Death row Scot's joy." The UK Metro has this article, entitled "Richey's death sentence overturned." Adam Fresco has this for the Times Online.

AP excerpt:
A federal appeals court Friday again threw out the conviction and death sentence of a U.S.-British citizen who's been on Ohio's death row for two decades.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its 2005 ruling in favor of Kenneth Richey, again said Richey received ineffective counsel in his trial for the 1986 death of a northwest Ohio toddler in a fire he was charged with setting. The court gave Ohio 90 days to give Richey, whose case has drawn international attention, a new trial or his freedom.

"We conclude that we properly reached and considered the merits of Richey's ineffective-assistance claim in our prior disposition," wrote Judge R. Guy Cole Jr., joined by Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey. The other judge on the appellate panel, Eugene E. Siler Jr., wrote a separate opinion saying he partly concurred with the majority, but dissented because he didn't believe decisions by lower courts against Richey were contrary to or unreasonable applications of the law.

Ken Parsigian, who argued Richey's appeal, was delighted with the ruling, but said: "The ball is really in the state's court."

The state could appeal the ruling. A message for comment was left with Attorney General Marc Dann's office. ...

Times Online excerpt:
...Clive Stafford Smith, the Legal Director of Reprieve, a charity that provides investigation and legal representation to prisoners facing the death penalty, who has been involved in Mr Richey’s case for ten years, said: “It’s time for the new UK Government to step up the pressure to end this farce.

"The Ohio prosecutors have spent thousands and thousands of dollars trying to keep this plainly innocent man on death row, rather than admit that they made a mistake 20 years ago.

"Let us hope that they do not waste thousands more appealing the decision made by the Sixth Circuit today, but rather let him return to the UK and re-start his life.”

John Watson, director of Amnesty International Scotland, said: “This is fantastic news and represents the opportunity that Kenny's long fought for - the chance to clear his name in a proper trial.

“Nobody should be sent to the living hell of death row, but Kenny Richey’s 20-year ordeal came after a flawed trial and serious concerns about the Ohio justice system.

“On the one had it is disturbing that it has taken this long for Ohio to look again at Kenny’s case - but now at least Kenny may be on the road to release.” ...

Metro excerpt:
...Scottish anti-death penalty campaigner Karen Torley, who has been heavily involved in the long-standing campaign, said: "I am absolutely delighted at today's news - it's been a long, long time coming. We're now hoping that he does get a retrial, so that Kenny actually has the chance to clear his name.

"I have always had full confidence in the fact that Kenny is absolutely innocent - and now Kenny's now one vital step closer to proving that to the world."

ohiodeathpenaltyinfo.typepad.com/ohio_death_penalty_inform/

[thinkinkmesa]

Prosecutor wants Ohio to fight ruling on Scotsman
Man deserves new trial or freedom, appeals panel said
Wednesday, August 29, 2007 3:31 AM
By Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
<p>Scotsman Kenneth T. Richey is on Ohio's Death Row for the arson killing of a 2-year-old girl in 1986.</p>

Scotsman Kenneth T. Richey is on Ohio's Death Row for the arson killing of a 2-year-old girl in 1986.
Depending on which side of the Atlantic Ocean you're on, Kenneth T. Richey either is said to be destined to remain on Ohio's Death Row or be transferred to a county jail from which he could be released on bail.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the state on Aug. 10 to either retry Richey, a native Scotsman, for an arson murder in 1986 or set him free.

A top official from Attorney General Marc Dann's office muddied the water by saying, apparently prematurely, that the state would not appeal the decision and would instead opt for a new trial.

Brian Laliberte, head of the attorney general's criminal divisions, further stated that Richey would be moved to the Putnam County jail and could, if the prosecutor and judge agreed, be released on bail pending a new trial that might not take place until next year.

Not so fast, said Putnam County Prosecutor Gary Lammers.

He set a meeting with Dann's staff for Friday to discuss the options of appealing the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court or retrying Richey.

He also wants to talk to the family of Cynthia Collins, the 2-year-old who died in an apartment fire that the courts concluded was started by Richey as revenge against his former girlfriend, who lived in the same building.

JoEllen Lyons, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said yesterday that Richey has not been moved from Death Row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution and will not be transferred until the department has a court order.

Nevertheless, Laliberte's comments spread quickly in the media in Scotland and all over the United Kingdom, which doesn't have capital punishment.

"Freedom near for Scot on Death Row," proclaimed the headline in the online version of The Scotsman of Edinburgh.

Richey's Boston attorney, Kenneth Parsigian, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Paul Nemser, another attorney on the case, told The Blade of Toledo, "It's entirely appropriate not to appeal. The 6th Circuit reached an appropriate resolution. There's nothing left to be considered by the Supreme Court."

In the ruling, the appeals panel faulted Richey's original trial attorney, Richard Kluge, for failing to present sufficient evidence to support his argument that the June 30, 1986, fire in Columbus Grove, Ohio, was accidental.

That and other questions resulted in "undermining our confidence in the reliability of the result," the panel said.

The state said Richey used gasoline and paint thinner to set the fire that caused the girl's death by smoke inhalation.

[e-mail]


Copyright © 2007, The Columbus Dispatch

[thinkinkmesa]

Kenny told me tonight that the application to be moved to County Jail has been made by his attorneys.

This means Kenny should be moved within 7 days to Putnam County Jail. This is long overdue!
Kenny is not over excited at the prospect of moving away from people he knows
BUT he knows it is another movement towards the trial he so wants to happen.

However, we the supporters of The Kenny Richey Campaign believe that if this trial is going to take place then it should take place outwith Putnam County in the name of truth and justice. There will be more on this on this site soon.
Please send Kenny CARDS of support. Post Cards from all over the world would be nice.
He will not be able to respond to many people but I am sure he would appreciate the cards coming through for when he gets there. Please keep sending cards. Kenny needs support now more than ever. Please keep the support up!
Send the cards to
Kenneth T Richey A194 764,
Putnam County Jail, Sheriffs Office
1035 Heritage Trl.
Ottawa, OH 45875-8524

Kenny is doing as well as one can expect in these stressful and ever changing circumstances. This is a huge move for him.
I told him I met The Proclaimers last night, who are huge supporters of his and he was delighted, since they sent their best wishes to him. This really cheered him up as he is a huge fan of theirs. He always sings "I would walk 500 miles".
Please also keep Kenny in your prayers.
Rules of the County Jail
Inmates are permitted a total of thirty (30) minutes of visitation each
week. They may choose to use fifteen (15) minutes on Sunday and the remaining
minutes on Wednesday, or use all their time on either day and not receive
visitation on the other day.
*
All visitors must have a valid picture identification, NO ONE over the age
of 18yrs old will be permitted to visit without identification.
Visitors under the age of 18yrs old must be accompanied by someone over the
age of 18yrs old related as parent, legal guardian or spouse.
Two (2) visitors may visit on visitation day, including infants and
children, and visitors may not switch during visitation.
All visitors must sign-in on the visitation register each visit.
Visitors must place property, such as bags, purses, etc. in the lockers
provided in the lobby and then pass through the metal detector.
All visitors are subject to a search.

Visitors may be refused for these reasons:
* If he or she has a history of disruptive conduct
* Presents a threat to the security of the facility
* Not properly dressed
* Suspected of being under the influence of drugs or alcohol
* Refuses to show proper ID
* Refuses to submit to a search
* The court or another officer has ordered that there be no contact between
the inmate and the visitor
* The inmate refused the visit
* Visitors may be refused at the discretion of the Correction Officer
PLEASE PASS THIS ON

Best Wishes

Karen E Torley

[thinkinkmesa]

Dear Friends and Supporters.

I have created a petition online to ask that there is a change of venue for Kenny's retrial.

I need you all to help make sure that there are as many signatures as possible on this petition. Let The State of Ohio and Putnam County see that we demand true justice and to get this, we want an impartial jury and there is little chance of this happening in this area.

Also Judge Randall Basinger who presides in the very court they wish to retry Kenny in, was the assistant Prosecutor who sent Kenny to death row in the first place.

"Kenny Richey Retrial: Change Of Venue Requested"
www.ipetitions.com/petition/KennyRicheyRetrial

Please sign and Pass onto all your contacts. This is REALLY Important!!!

Thanks
Karen

[thinkinkmesa]

Scotsman.com News
Friday, 21st September 2007
Scotland - Edinburgh
The Scotsman Thu 20 Sep 2007
My first days off death row have given me a new taste for freedom in Scotland

For too long, "home" to Kenny Richey has been a windowless cell in a maximum security prison block in Mansfield, Ohio, where the death chamber has beckoned. Over the years, many like him have been marched into the building; few ever leave it alive.

For him, however, the prospect of returning to the place he calls his real home - Edinburgh - finally seems a reality. The 43-year-old Scot, who was convicted in 1987 of starting a fire that killed a two-year-old girl in Ohio, was on Monday freed from Mansfield and moved to a county jail, far from the threat of the executioner's needle, following a ruling in his favour by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

"I'm no longer on death row, now I'm just an ordinary Joe - and let me tell you, it feels good to be able to say that," he said yesterday.

"I've had my hopes raised so many times before, but now I'm on my way. I'm finally out of that hell-hole, I'm going to clear my name and I'm going to go home to Scotland."

Fellow inmates on death row - including James Filiaggi, a convicted murderer who he counted as his best friend - have left Mansfield in body bags. For Richey, feeling the wind in his hair during the ride out of there and being able to see the sky from his new cell, feels like relative luxury.

"I have my own TV, my own sink and there's a window I can see out of. That's a big, big deal," he said, speaking from the county jail in Ottawa, Ohio.

"I get treated a lot better by the guards here. I can exercise every day - it's been a long time since I was in trim - and I get to use the phone from 6am to 11pm. The bed's a little bit more comfortable too.

"They're basic things to most people, but they're things that mean a lot when you've been stuck where I have, thinking you're going to die."

Richey was 18 when he left Edinburgh in 1982, where he had lived with his mother, Eileen, and moved to Ohio to be with his American father, James, and join the US military.

The course of his life changed forever in 1986, when a fire broke out in a block of flats in Columbus Grove, Ohio, where his ex-girlfriend, Candy Barchet, lived. The flames engulfed the flat above Barchet's, claiming the life of a two-year-old, Cynthia Collins. Richey was convicted of murder and arson the following year and sentenced to death.

MORE than two decades later, during which time he has been scheduled for execution 13 times, the threat was finally lifted last month after the appeal court upheld its 2005 decision to overturn his conviction and sentence and ordered that he must be set free or granted a new trial.

Prosecutors in Putnam County, Ohio, have indicated that they intend to retry him, though such a hearing is unlikely to begin before the end of the year.

Amnesty International has described Richey's case as "one of the most compelling cases of apparent innocence" it has ever seen, pointing to flawed forensic and dubious witness evidence.

But the prosecution insists otherwise, saying that it will prove for a second time that Richey - who had allegedly threatened to burn the building that night out of jealousy, after his ex-girlfriend struck up a relationship with another man - was the culprit. The case appears set to be additionally handicapped by the deaths of key witnesses, and powerful forensic evidence.

"They say they are going to go for a new trial, but I can't see them being that stupid, to be honest," said Richey.

"We have some of the top arson experts in the world saying the fire was accidental. We have forensic experts saying the same thing. The prosecutors have sweet nothing.

"If I'd been guilty, I could have done a plea deal at the time and I'd have been walking free around Edinburgh years ago. But I didn't. I stayed and I fought, because I'm not going to lie and say I did it when I know I'm innocent.

"We're anxious to get going on a new trial. We're going to embarrass the hell out of this county. Those prosecutors, they're going to look like a bunch of idiots in the eyes of the world," he said.

RICHEY, who broke off his engagement to Karen Torley - a Scottish mother of four with whom he struck up a relationship from behind bars after she wrote to offer her support - has maintained close touch in the last couple of years with his American ex-wife, Wendy. The pair were married for two years before divorcing in 1986, but have resurrected their relationship.

"When it's done, I'll go back to Scotland and take my wife with me. She's waiting for me to get out. Her and my son will be coming back to Scotland to start a new life with me," said Richey.

Ken Parsigian, his lawyer, will apply for bail next week. It is unclear whether that will result in his freedom; Richey has no money to make bail even if it is granted, though his brother Stephen - who lives locally - has offered his house as collateral.

"The factors that cut in Kenny's favour are that he's got a very stable family member living right there, he's got a good relationship with Stephen and his wife and family and they are willing to put up their house because they believe in Kenny. He always wanted an opportunity to prove his innocence - he has never shown any desire to run away from this stuff, but rather to fight for an opportunity to prove he didn't do the crime.

"We have never been closer to winning freedom for Kenny than this."

The Boston-based lawyer describes Richey's case, which he has conducted pro bono, as the most significant and fulfilling case he has ever handled.

He added: "This is a defining case; we can get Kenny home where he belongs. I think it will be the crowning moment of my career the day Kenny walks free."

Being in the custody of the county jail, rather than death row, does have one down-side for Richey, however. He must now wear a green and white striped jail uniform.

"It makes me look like a bloody Celtic supporter - and I don't even like Celtic," he joked.

Related topic

* Kenny Richey
news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=409

This article: news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=1503822007

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toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080106/NEWS17/801060344/0/NEWS14

Kenneth Richey's first meal at home in his mother's small flat in Scotland will be a childhood favorite that isn't likely to have appeared on the menu of Ohio's death row - haggis.

But once he's finished with the meal of stuffed sheep stomach, turnips, and potatoes - a meal he requested - his mother, Eileen, has another treat for him. A diet.

"He's going to have to lose weight," she said. "That's my plan."

Tomorrow, Richey is expected to leave the Putnam County jail for the nearby courthouse, where he intends to enter pleas of no contest to charges of attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, and breaking and entering, none of which would involve an admission that he set the June 30, 1986, apartment fire that killed 2-year-old Cynthia K. Collins of Columbus Grove, Ohio.

In a case that has made it to the U.S. Supreme Court and back again, Richey's aggravated murder conviction was ultimately overturned a second time by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati in August.

Richey should have been home just before Christmas, but a trip to the emergency room with chest pains delayed his plea hearing until tomorrow.


The court determined his defense lawyer was inadequate at trial when it came to challenging questionable arson evidence.

Tests showed 60 percent blockage in one of his arteries, but he's opted to wait until his return to Scotland before having surgery.

"He's still having chest pains, but he seems to be OK,'' said his father, Jim Richey. "Or at least he's pretending that until he gets to Scotland. He wants to get back to his home."

As a dual U.S.-British citizen, Richey is eligible for free national health care in the United Kingdom.

"He genuinely thought he was coming home [by Christmas]," he said. "In January, 2005, he thought he had 90 days, and that was taken away from him. He's endured a lot of stress and strain."

"The fact that he's had two to three heart attacks is a sign it's been very difficult for him," said Marc Callcutt of Reprieve UK, who plans to greet Mr. Richey during a Wednesday morning layover at London's Heathrow Airport.

While Richey maintained his innocence over the years, he insisted he would never accept a plea bargain.

His Boston attorney, Ken Parsigian, said the plea is the best way to end his client's ordeal without admitting guilt for setting the fire that killed the little girl.

"Really what it came down to for us was when they were willing to give up the only two things this was ever about, murder and arson, basically saying they can't prove murder and they can't prove arson," he said.

The attempted involuntary manslaughter charge, Mr. Parsigian said, merely has Richey admitting he was supposed to baby-sit the child but did not fulfill that duty.

Together, the maximum prison sentence for the three felonies he plans to plead no contest to totals 21 years - 15 years for attempted involuntary manslaughter, five years for child endangerment, and one year for breaking and entering. Richey will have served about 190 days more than that.

As part of the agreement, Mr. Parsigian said Richey agreed to leave the country within 24 hours, although, as a U.S. citizen, he's free to return at any time. He said Prosecutor Gary Lammers was concerned "about people who might want to take revenge against Kenny."

Mr. Lammers could not be reached for comment.

Richey also will agree not to sue the state for wrongful imprisonment or seek any other damages, Mr. Parsigian said.

Richey is expected to spend his first evening of freedom at the Cloverdale home of his brother, Steve. But he may not be able to meet with his 22-year-old son, Sean, as he'd originally hoped.

Sean Richey traveled from Minnesota to visit his father before Christmas, but he was arrested when he arrived at the county sheriff's office on warrants from home for failing to appear at a pretrial hearing on misdemeanor assault and disorderly conduct charges. Minnesota authorities picked him up on Thursday.

Richey's ex-wife, Wendy, said she was trying to come up with $3,200 to bail Sean Richey out of jail in Minnesota so the two of them could drive to Ohio for tomorrow's hearing.

"We're not sure it's going to work," she said.

On Tuesday, his first full day of freedom, Richey is expected to fly overnight to Edinburgh where he grew up, the son of Eileen, a Scottish woman who briefly lived in the United States, and Jim, a former American serviceman now living in the state of Washington.

Richey will move into his mother's flat in the residential neighborhood of Dalry near the Scottish capital's center.

Mrs. Richey told The Blade that she plans to meet her son at the airport and drive him to her flat, but she expressed concern about what could be heavy media attention in her quiet neighborhood.

"I'm worried sick," she said. "I hope they don't bother my neighbors in any way."

Richey's ex-fiancee, Karen Torley of Glasgow, about 50 miles away, plans to steer clear of the airport after staying in frequent phone contact with Richey over the years and visiting him when he was on Ohio's former death row at the Mansfield Correctional Institution.

"It will be very, very difficult for him to adjust because he's been almost alone for a long time and not used to crowds," she said.

Contact Jim Provance at: [e-mail] or 614-221-0496.

[thinkinkmesa]

toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080109/OPINION02/801090323

Article published January 9, 2008

Poor excuse for justice


KENNETH Richey is most assuredly not a sympathetic figure, but the kangaroo-court deal that set him free after two decades on death row is an embarrassing reminder that the wheels of the Ohio legal system sometimes grind in cruel, interminable fashion with no guarantee that real justice will prevail.

We make this declaration out of frustration because this newspaper has long maintained a strong editorial position in favor of swift and sure capital punishment in open-and-shut murder cases while opposing those that are unjustly imposed.

Unfortunately, the case of Richey, a small-time Scottish-American hooligan, turned into a travesty of justice before a skeptical world audience. Tried on flimsy evidence in the 1986 fire death of a 2-year-old Putnam County girl, he got an inept legal defense and a faulty trial full of errors and omissions that cast convincing doubt as to whether he committed any crime at all.

Moreover, it took 21 years for the case to run its course, culminating in Richey's release Monday to return to his homeland, free but broke and in ill health at 43 after years behind bars.

Had it not been for the intervention of a federal appeals court, Richey probably would have been executed unjustifiably.

In the end, he was, in effect, blackmailed into securing his freedom by pleading no contest to three face-saving charges so local authorities could claim that he had been held responsible for the death of little Cynthia Collins, the daughter of his sometime-girlfriend.

Gone were capital counts of aggravated murder and arson, lamely replaced by charges that included attempted involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment, on the thin grounds that Richey had failed to look after the child for her mother on the night she died.

Additionally, Richey's lawyer neglected to challenge weak and unreliable testimony that arson caused the fire and the three-judge panel that tried him failed to take account of this crucial omission. Such ineptitude should disqualify those jurists from further service on the bench.

Strong though the thirst for vengeance may be on the part of the victim's family, "failure to baby-sit," as the bogus charge against Richey was termed, is no excuse for unjustly imprisoning a man for 21 years.

Indeed, it was the girl's mother who had the ultimate responsibility to ensure that she was cared for on that fateful night.

Parading Richey into court in chains was the final indignity engineered by Putnam County authorities in an attempt to convince the public that justice was done. But it only served to underscore how an unsympathetic defendant can be chewed up and spit out by a legal system that failed to live up to its promise of fairness.

[thinkinkmesa]

Scot who aided Richey reflects on his release
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Torley moves on with her life after battling to save inmate

BY JIM PROVANCE
BLADE STAFF WRITER


GLASGOW - Moments after Kenneth Richey walked out of the Putnam County jail on Monday, a free man for the first time in more than 21 years, he thanked just one person specifically by name.

Karen Torley.

But the 41-year-old divorced, unemployed Glasgow mother of four and grandmother of three was nowhere to be seen when Richey finally stepped off a plane in nearby Edinburgh two days later, an event broadcast live on Scottish television.

"I couldn't stop crying when he came off the plane," Ms. Torley told The Blade between puffs on cigarettes. "There was a lot of emotion. It was something that I'd worked so hard for. It was my choice not to be there. I thought he looked so bewildered and exhausted, and these people were all yelling at him."

She hasn't talked to Richey while he, his brother Steve of Cloverdale, Ohio, and his mother, Eileen of Edinburgh, have been sequestered in a posh hotel outside the Scottish capital since his return. The tab and the flights for the Richey brothers were picked up by media organizations paying for his exclusive story.

Ms. Torley has shared in none of it, despite the fact that famous London publicist Max Clifford, who arranged exclusive media deals estimated at upward of $60,000, the equivalent of 30,000 pounds, said she was the one who first brought him on board a couple of years ago.

"I will get left with what's left

when they're all gone," she said. "By that time, he'll be totally exhausted. He's gone through some type of trauma, and these people all just feed off of it. They've got to get a news story."

Richey had been convicted of aggravated murder and arson charges in the 1986 death of Cynthia Collins, who was just shy of her 3rd birthday when a Columbus Grove, Ohio, apartment fire claimed her life.

The Cincinnati-based U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the convictions for a second time last year on the grounds that his attorney was ineffective at trial when it came to challenging questionable arson evidence.

On Monday, Richey, 43, pleaded no contest to lesser charges of attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, and breaking and entering, essentially agreeing that he'd proven to be a bad baby-sitter for the child. In return, the state opted not to retry him on the aggravated murder and arson charges, and with that, Richey became a free man. He is expected to move into his mother's home in the residential community of Dalry in central Edinburgh.

Ms. Torley still lives in what was her "granny's house" in the poor part of Cambuslang on the outskirts of Glasgow. With the help of the European Union, Scotland's largest city is only now starting to rebound from the demise of its steel, shipbuilding, and coal industries decades ago.

The Richey story largely fell off the front pages of United Kingdom newspapers after his homecoming, but another wave of publicity is expected today as a pair of United Kingdom publications, the Mail on Sunday newspaper and Sunday People tabloid, are likely to start running stories for which they had paid him and his family.

An exclusive story on SkyTV is expected later in the week.

"Money was never my motivation for this," Ms. Torley said. "I believed in it. I've never had money. … You don't miss what you never had."

The United Kingdom no longer has a death penalty, although there are those who lobby for its return. Counting Richey, just 10 British nationals were on death rows in countries across the world, including two facing execution for murders in California and Texas, and several facing death for drug charges in southeast Asia.

Ms. Torley first became aware of Richey through a 1990s Scottish TV documentary.

She wasn't impressed with what she saw from death row at Mansfield Correctional Institution.

"He had a way that he talked through his teeth," Ms. Torley said. "I thought he was really arrogant. And when he said he was innocent, I said, 'Yeah right, they all say that.'

"But then I thought it must feel like the loneliest thing on earth for people to want you dead," Ms. Torley said.

"So eventually I wrote to Kenny, just to let him know I didn't want him dead. I didn't even know what he was in for."

She was surprised when he wrote back, triggering frequent letters and phone calls, and at Richey's request she started beating the drum more loudly in Scottish media. She raised money to send Richey's mother, Eileen, to visit her son on death row, receiving contributions from the Archbishop of Canterbury and members of Parliament.

But she eventually turned her eyes across the sea to Ohio, nearly 4,000 miles across the Atlantic.

"I knew it was no good to speak to people over here," she said. "I knew people had a grasp of it, but it was the people in Ohio who mattered."

Their relationship raised eyebrows when, at one point, she took Richey's last name and was identified as his fiancee.

"Kenny rang me up one day, and said, 'I put you on the prison list as my wife, Karen Richey,'•" she said. "I said 'Kenny, I don't have ID.' So I had to go and get my passport changed. I had to give an affidavit, saying I wish to be called this name. Over here, you can call yourself whatever you want."

The relationship, however, ended when Richey's ex-wife from Minnesota, Wendy, and their son, Sean, came back into his life. They did not travel with him to Edinburgh, however.

Ms. Torley is now planning to remarry her ex-husband, Frank, a truck driver who said he is proud of what she helped to accomplish with Richey.

"She beat them … the Americans," he said with a smile.

Ms. Torley is also not finished with Ohio's death row.

Through Richey, she befriended death-row inmate John Spirko, who ironically learned Gov. Ted Strickland had commuted his death sentence to life in prison on the same day Richey finally got back to Scotland.

Spirko was convicted in the 1982 kidnapping and stabbing of a Van Wert County postmaster, Betty Jane Mottinger.

And Ms. Torley has taken an interest in the case of George C. Skatzes, 51, one of the so-called "Lucasville Five" sentenced to death for roles in the 1993 uprising at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution that led to the deaths of nine prisoners and a guard.

"After other death-row inmates started to see that things were happening for Kenny, I had people send me their case papers," Ms. Torley said. "I started doing take-home stuff for George Skatzes, so yeah, I think Ohio's stuck with me for a while."

And she is working on a book about the Richey case.

"Now I have an ending," Ms. Torley said.

Contact Jim Provance at:
[e-mail]
or 614-221-0496.

[thinkinkmesa]

Scotland - Kenny Richey 'afraid to leave house' after drug photos

Wed Apr 9, 2008 8:05 am (PDT)
Kenny Richey 'afraid to leave house' after drug photos
April 20, 2008

THE nephew of former Death Row prisoner Kenny Richey says his uncle
has been left scared to leave his flat after pictures allegedly
showed him snorting cocaine.

Ryan Smith said the 43-year-old was scared people would think he was
a drug user after the photos appeared in a newspaper.

Mr Smith, 24, had been drinking with Richey on the night the photos
were taken and backed up his uncle's claims that he was only
pretending to take the Class A drug. He said:

"We were offered cocaine but didn't accept, but Kenny pretended to
take some.

"A guy took a picture on his phone but said he deleted it."

Mr Smith, from Whitson Crescent, Saughton, added: "Kenny is afraid to
leave the house because of what people might think. I'm not backing
him because he's family – he really didn't do it."

Mr Smith admitted that his uncle had blown up to £2000 in a single
night in casinos.

Richey has said the photos had left him on the brink of suicide.

edinburghnews.scotsman.com/latestnews/Kenny-Richey- 39afraid-to-leave.3961811.jp

[thinkinkmesa]

Email I received this day;

Hi Diane

Thanks for your email. You may or may not have heard, but Kenny Richey has been diagnosed with mouth cancer today. He is having an operation next week to remove the tumor and then radiotherapy after that. Not good, especially after all the trauma Kenny has been through, and since his release he has not coped very well. Not sure if Brett knew him very well, but perhaps you would let him know. Whatever Kenny has been through since his release, this was totally unexpected and our thoughts and prayers are with him.

[guest]

The man who can't escape death row.
After 21 years in prison, Kenny Richey was freed last year. But life on the outside has been marked by alcoholism, violence and despair. By Mark Hughes

When Kenny Richey arrived back in Britain in January, he said all the things expected of a man who had just been released after 21 years on America's death row. He spoke of starting a family, getting a house, a job and making a new life for himself. "I just want to enjoy being truly alive again," he said.


Last weekend, his days of freedom reached 200. Even if Mr Richey was aware of the landmark, he didn't have much time to dwell on it. On Friday, he had to be coaxed down from a rooftop in Edinburgh after slashing his wrists and then threatening to jump. He was arrested and released on Saturday. Then, on Sunday, he was beaten up by a boxer after a drunken confrontation outside his rented flat.
To read more;
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-man-who-cant-escape-death-row-880317.html

[thinkinkmesa]

Detectives Steve Stechschulte and Roy Sargent send Kenny a card from

www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/article1740444.ece

Message recieved via email;
This just proves what we said all along in this case. Yet they denied it.

What they have done is proven publicly what we have said for all those
years about them being prejudiced against Kenny. At last they show
their true colours.

They have to be keeping track of Kenny. Surely taking such a personal interest in him is not professional behaviour?

What
they fail to say is that the charges of murder and arson were dropped
totally. Kenny is not a convicted murderer. This is the kind of
attitude that resulted in Kenny being convicted in the first place.
They had Kenny convicted before he even had his farce of a trial.

These
two men where heavily involved in the case from the very begining. This
is very vindictive and show's that these men cannot do their jobs
without getting so personally involved.

There should be an
internal investigation as to why these so called professionals did this
and they should be reprimanded for it.
This card was sent from the
Sheriff's office and he knows about it. He too was involved in the
original case along with his father.

Now people can see how these people in Putnam really are.

To
say this is between them and Kenny is very niave. Did they not realise
Kenny would give this to media and they would end up looking very
silly.


www.gopetition.com/petitions/justice-for-william-gage.html
PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION AND PASS ON!

www.torley.org

[thinkinkmesa]

Death row Scot cleared of attack

Kenny Richey was cleared of three charges

Former death row Scot Kenny Richey has been cleared of a masked attack on a 64-year-old man over a £200 debt.
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7926092.stm