Appeals court throws out death sentence

Kenneth Richey was given the death penalty for setting a fire in 1986 that killed a 2-year-old girl.

CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday again threw out the two-decades-old death sentence of a U.S.-British citizen convicted of killing a toddler girl in a case that has drawn international attention.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its 2005 ruling in favor of Kenneth Richey, again found that Richey received ineffective counsel in his murder trial. The court said Ohio has 90 days to give Richey 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.

Richey, now 43, was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to die for setting the 1986 fire that killed 2-year-old Cynthia Collins in an apartment in Columbus Grove in northwest Ohio.

Reasonable-doubt issue

Friday’s opinion said the Supreme Court’s ruling had been unclear and again agreed with Richey that expert testimony could have contended that the fire wasn’t intentionally set but caused by something else, such as a cigarette left smoldering.

“Confronted with evidence debunking the state’s scientific conclusions, the trial court might have had a reasonable doubt about Richey’s guilt,” the appeals court said.

Ken Parsigian, a Boston attorney who argued Richey’s appeal, urged Ohio officials to “say enough is enough for this man.”

“It’s a great leap over a giant hurdle, but we’re not quite at the finish line yet,” he said. “The ball is really in the state’s court.”

The state could appeal the ruling. A spokeswoman for Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, who took office in January, said his office is reviewing the case and coordinating with prosecutors in Putnam County, where Richey was convicted.

“This is a complex and sensitive case with a long history,” spokeswoman Jennifer Brindisi said in a statement. “We are considering all of the options before us and we will arrive at a decision on how to proceed in the most prudent and expeditious manner possible.”

Parsigian has argued that evidence casts doubts about Richey’s role and whether the fatal fire was intentionally set.

Prosecutors said Richey set the blaze to get even with his former girlfriend, who lived in the same apartment building and had a new boyfriend sleeping over. They escaped the fire.

Richey, who grew up in Scotland, has steadfastly maintained his innocence and drawn support for years, including from members of the British Parliament and the late Pope John Paul II.