Man on death row 20 years to go free today

TOLEDO (AP) — Ken Richey spent two decades on death row denying that he started a fire that killed a toddler. Today, he’ll walk free for the first time since his arrest. And just as important to him, he will go home to Scotland without admitting that he had anything to do with the fire.

Richey, a U.S.-British citizen whose death sentence was overturned earlier this year, agreed to a plea deal that will give him his freedom, his lawyer Ken Parsigian said Wednesday. He will enter no contest pleas today to attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangering and breaking and entering, Parsigian said, and he’ll leave for his native Scotland on Friday.

But Richey has said he would never admit to starting the fire and rejected previous plea offers that would have linked him to the fire, Parsigian said. Richey, 43, had been convicted of setting a 1986 fire that killed a 2-year-old girl and spent 20 years on death row until a federal appeals court determined in August that his lawyers mishandled his case.

The state was set to try him again in March and seek another death sentence.