Off death row, man gets hearing

He’ll get another trial, but the judge set his bond at $1 million.

OTTAWA, Ohio (AP) — Steve Richey clutched a blue polo and a pair of tan trousers with the tags still attached, hoping his brother could wear the clothes out of jail for the first time since he was sentenced to death two decades ago.

Kenneth Richey didn’t get to walk out, yet that didn’t matter much to his family.

They just were thrilled that he has another chance to win his freedom.

Richey, a U.S.-British citizen, was convicted of setting a fire that killed a 2-year-old girl and spent 20 years on death row until a federal appeals court overturned his conviction in August. He now faces another trial on the same charges. On Tuesday, a judge set his bond at $10 million.

“It’s just nice to be able to touch him and have contact with him,” said his father, James Richey.

It was only the third time that Richey’s 21-year-old son, Sean, saw his father. The young man mouthed, “I love you,” to his dad, who winked back as he sat in court.

“It still seems like a dream,” Sean Richey said. “I just want justice.”

Dead girl’s family

Across the aisle, relatives of Cynthia Collins, the toddler killed in the 1986 fire, stared angrily at Richey.

They wore shirts and buttons bearing a picture of Cynthia Collins and shuffled out of the Putnam County courthouse without talking to anyone after visiting Judge Alan Travis turned down a prosecutor’s request to deny Richey bail.

To be freed, Richey now will need to come up with $1 million. “We’re going to try to raise the money,” said his attorney Ken Parsigian who acknowledged that will be difficult because Richey’s family doesn’t have it.

Still, he expects that Richey’s supporters in his native Scotland will attempt to get the money.

Richey, 43, came to live with his American-born father in the early 1980s and became a British citizen while in prison.

While his case has generated limited interest in Ohio, his name is a familiar one in Britain. He has drawn support from members of the British Parliament and the late Pope John Paul II.

Appeals court ruling

He was nearly out of appeals until a federal appeals court ordered that he receive a new trial because his original lawyer mishandled the case. The court said expert testimony could have contended that the fire wasn’t intentionally set.

Richey’s new lawyer, Parsigian, on Tuesday told the judge handling the new trial that the state’s case has become much weaker over the past 20 years while Richey’s case has grown stronger.

“The entire trial will be dramatically different this time,” Parsigian said.

He suggested the victim, Cynthia Collins, may have been the one who started the fire, saying the child had twice before started fires that were put out by firefighters.

“She was fascinated with matches,” Parsigian said. “That never came up at trial.”

Prosecutors said Richey set the fire in Columbus Grove to get even with his former girlfriend, who lived in the same apartment building as the toddler who died.

Other defense claims

Richey’s defense team contends that investigators mishandled evidence used to convict Richey and that experts used nonscientific methods to determine that gas or turpentine started the fire.

Parsigian also said it was hard to believe that Richey, who was drunk and had his arm in a sling on the night of the fire, could have carried gas canisters and climbed onto a balcony as prosecutors said at his trial.

County Prosecutor Gary Lammers said that the case against Richey is still strong even though some witnesses have died and memories have faded.

Without revealing many details, he pointed out that witnesses say they heard Richey threaten to burn down the apartment building hours before the fire began.

“He had motive and opportunity,” Lammers said.

He plans to try to seek another death sentence against Richey at a trial now expected to start as soon as January.

After the hearing Tuesday, the judge allowed Richey to spend five minutes with his family in the courtroom. “That was really a moving moment for him,” Parsigian said.

Richey didn’t smile while in court even when his family tried to make him laugh.

He spoke only once, when the judge asked if he understood that if he was released, he wasn’t to have any contact with witnesses.

Richey responded, “Yes sir,” a trace of his Scottish accent apparent.

Later, as he was led out of court in handcuffs, Richey declared: “Pretty good day.”