Kenny Richey's Death Sentence Overturned
Tom Allan | 26.01.2005 16:53 | Repression
After 18 years on death row in Ohio, Edinburgh born Kenny Richey has finally had his conviction ruled overturned by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal. Richey was convicted in 1986 of an arson attack that killed 2 year old Cynthia Collins, but always maintained his innocence.
Kenny Richey
By 1997 both the forensic evidence and witness statements that had secured his conviction had been largely discredited, but Richey’s death sentence still stood because, as Prosecution Dan Gershutz said, "Even though this new evidence may establish Mr Richey's innocence, the Ohio and United States constitution nonetheless allow him to be executed because the prosecution did not know that the scientific testimony offered at the trial was false and unreliable." A retrial based on new evidence was denied, despite support from hundreds of MPs and luminaries, including the Pope.
Richey would have been executed over the next couple of months. Yet on Tuesday, in his final appeal to the sixth circuit court, the judgement was finally deemed unsafe. Ohio State prosecutors have been ordered to retry Richey within 90 days or release him, though they are expected to appeal the decision.
Richey may not be free just yet, but at what was planned as a protest tomorrow outside the US consulate - to mark 18 years to the day since he went on death row - the mood will surely be one more of celebration than of protest.
For more information on Kenny Richeys case, go to
http://www.kennyrichey.org
For information on other Britons being held on death row, go to http://www.reprieve.org.uk
To hear commentaries by African American Journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal - another innocent man on death row – go to http://www.fsrn.org/news/audio/mumia
If you can make it for the vigil, please meet Thursday at 10:00 am at the Chaplaincy Centre, or at 10:30 at the consulate on Carlton Hill. Perhaps a solidarity protest is occurring in London or could be held at the US embassy there.
Richey would have been executed over the next couple of months. Yet on Tuesday, in his final appeal to the sixth circuit court, the judgement was finally deemed unsafe. Ohio State prosecutors have been ordered to retry Richey within 90 days or release him, though they are expected to appeal the decision.
Richey may not be free just yet, but at what was planned as a protest tomorrow outside the US consulate - to mark 18 years to the day since he went on death row - the mood will surely be one more of celebration than of protest.
For more information on Kenny Richeys case, go to
http://www.kennyrichey.org For information on other Britons being held on death row, go to
http://www.reprieve.org.uk To hear commentaries by African American Journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal - another innocent man on death row – go to
http://www.fsrn.org/news/audio/mumia If you can make it for the vigil, please meet Thursday at 10:00 am at the Chaplaincy Centre, or at 10:30 at the consulate on Carlton Hill. Perhaps a solidarity protest is occurring in London or could be held at the US embassy there.
Tom Allan
e-mail:
w_t_allan@yahoo.com
Comments
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Good news... I hope Kenny is freed and back home in Scotland soon!
28.01.2005 03:41
Kenny Richie Is -STILL- Innocent - Hopefully soon to be free!
I also recall speaking to a Scottish newspaper reporter around the same time as it was a headline story again in Scotland as Kenny had been seriously beaten up by prison guards at the time.
I'm totally opposed to the death sentence full stop, no conditions. I only knew of Kenny's case due to the World In Action programme in January 1998 (a long missed ITV investigative journalism programme). I wish I had kept a recording of the programme.
We can all do something about injustice and if we feel strongly about it then doing nothing is just not an excuse.
My small contribution? I put a webpage together in 1998 and what I wrote was out of anger at the fact that Tony Blair, in 1998, showed more concern over the fictional Coronation Street character Dierdre Rachid being put in prison, it even got raised in Parliament. On the same night, a Monday night, the World In Action programme showed Kenny's case and it was overwhelmingly convincing that he was innocent.
You might recall at the same time British Nanny Louise Woodward, from Cheshire had middle England in uproar over her court case, while not facing the death penalty incidently, it was a wholly sympathetic and long running media story through 1998.
The website which I can no longer access since leaving that Internet service provider around 2001, is still available on the internet strangely enough.
Anyway I'm here in Liverpool in England and I wish Kenny and Karen all the best and so glad to hear this good news. I visit Scotland Indymedia sometimes and just wanted to give my best wishes...
Kai Andersen
e-mail:
aokaitiscali.co.uk
Homepage:
http://homepages.enterprise.net/aok/