http://www.edinburghnews.com/ on this page the Edinburgh Evening News are calling for a retrial for Kenny. Click on the pic of Kenny and a page pops up. All that is needed is your email address to vote. Please vote and show this paper we have support. thanks. I do have permission to have the articles posted from the paper. Karen In his first face-to-face interview for four years, Kenny Richey says he's not afraid to die. Jennifer Veitch reports from Death Row at Mansfield Correctional Institution, Ohio KENNY Richey tries to stretch out a burly hand in greeting, but can barely lift his arm away from his body. It's only on moving closer that the cuffs come into view, snapped shut around his reddened wrists. After 13 years on Ohio's Death Row, this simple human contact is a novelty for the 35-year-old Scot. The few visitors he is allowed to have are usually separated by a glass partition and have to talk to him through a phone. Today, however, he has been allowed out of the confines of his eight-by-ten feet concrete cell at Mansfield Correctional Institution. Wearing a white T-shirt and dark blue tracksuit trousers, he is brought into a bare sideroom for the one-hour meeting. No longer the skinny young man sentenced to die for starting the fire in Columbus Grove which killed two-year-old Cynthia Collins in 1986, his build is now stocky and muscular. According to his ID badge, the 5ft 8in inmate A194764 is carrying 195lbs, his pumped-up neck and shoulders the most obvious manifestation of his bulk. His reddish-blond hair is close-cropped, shorter than the prison's regulation three inches. It has grown back since it was shaved last summer in readiness for his 13th date with Old Sparky, Ohio's electric chair, before a last-minute stay of execution. Sitting under the harsh ultra-violet light, his skin looks unhealthily pale after years without exposure to the sun. Dark shadows circle his blue eyes, hinting at years of sleepless nights. Apart from his moustache, he is clean-shaven and the faint, not unpleasant smell of his aftershave - 5.00 a bottle - hangs in the air. THIS Thursday, Kenny will celebrate his 36th birthday in prison, having spent most of his adult life living in the shadow of death - while his lawyers plough their way through the cumbersome US appeals system. The irony is that if he had admitted starting the blaze he would now be a free man. The prosecution had offered him a plea bargain before his trial which would have seen him serve only ten years. But dare to ask him why he rejected the offer when he knew he could face the death penalty and he looks stunned, as if he's just been slapped in the face. "I was innocent," he says bluntly. "I could have been out four years ago, but no. Even today if they said 'plead guilty, we'll let you out today', I'd say no." He pauses, before adding in an accent which could almost be mistaken for a young Sean Connery: "It's a matter of principle - a matter of honour." Whether it's honour or just plain stubbornness, Kenny steadfastly refused to confess to a crime forensic experts say was started accidentally - even if it meant saving his own life. He still struggles to comprehend why it is taking so long for the American courts to acknowledge what Amnesty International has described as "one of the most compelling cases of innocence" they have ever seen. "They don't want to listen to it," he says. "Because [the evidence] wasn't part of the trial record you can't introduce it until you get to federal court at a certain part of the appeal process." Years of incarceration may have hardened him to life in prison, but his disbelief at his conviction still comes through - especially as the incident in which Cynthia died was orginally ruled an accident. The first charges against Kenny were brought because the child's mother, Hope Collins, claimed he had agreed to babysit. "When they arrested me it was for child endangerment and involuntary manslaughter," he recalls. "I sat in jail for ten days. While I was in jail, a newspaper article came out saying the fire had been ruled as an accidental fire - as an electrical fire. "Then, ten days after I had been arrested, they came back with charges, hitting me with arson, hitting me with aggravated murder, child endangering, involuntary manslaughter and breaking and entering. They didn't think it was arson at first, and if they had thought it was arson they wouldn't have had the apartment cleared out and taken to the county dump, you know, the whole contents." The prosecution alleged Kenny had stolen cans of paint thinner and gasoline, climbed on to a sloping shed, and set fire to Hope's apartment while Cynthia slept alone inside. Kenny's motive, they argued, was to kill his former girlfriend and her new lover, who were asleep in the apartment below. In spite of a lack of physical evidence connecting him to the fire, and the fact that he tried to save Cynthia, Kenny acknowledges there was a circumstantial case. Witnesses testified in court he had boasted he would burn the building down. However, he adds: "Four people said that, three had different variations of what was said, the time it was said - there were two and three hour differences. "One of them has since recanted what she said." One neighbour, Juanita Altimus, who has since died, testified he boasted he had done a good job, although Kenny was in police custody at the time she said he made the comment. He says: "The old woman [Juanita Altimus], she was proven to be a bloody liar. Her statement was that we were all sitting on the stairs going up to the apartments and that I stood up and said that 'a' building was going to burn - 'I'm going to burn doon 'a' building' or some crap like that. "Everybody who was there at the time all said I did nothing of the bloody kind. The old woman just wanted to be a part of something. "She heard rumour and rumour and she built on to it and decided she wanted to get involved." The prosecution also used a letter Kenny had sent from jail to an old friend from Edinburgh, Roy Barclay, as evidence of his violent past as part of a gang in the city. But Kenny contends the letter was a fake, deliberately sent to the wrong address and designed to prove that his letters were being read. "I wanted to prove that these bastards were reading my mail - they're not supposed to read your mail, and they were doin' it," he says. "I came up with some way to show that they were reading it so they'd say something, especially say something in court, and I'd be able to nab 'em for it. "It worked perfect, but it also backfired at the same time because they used the bloody thing against me. Nobody said it was fake, but if you look on the front it's the wrong address." But his biggest mistake, he says, was listening to the advice of his lawyer, Bill Kluge, who encouraged Kenny to waive his right to a jury trial in favour of a three-judge panel. "He thought a jury trial would be more inclined to convict," he says. "I could have said no, I could have went for a jury trial. "But my dad was behind me, saying, 'Son, for once in your life listen to somebody - listen to your attorneys, they know the law, do what they tell you.' "I said, 'all right then'. Biggest bloody mistake I ever made!" Kenny believes younger brother Tom's murder conviction for shooting a shop assistant, while high on drugs, earlier the same year prejudiced his case. "They had already known about it. That's how they managed to get an indictment in the first place, by telling the Grand Jury that my brother was a murderer and stuff." However, Kenny is the first to admit that he was no angel before his arrest, although he puts his boisterous behaviour down to immaturity. "I was wild," he says. "I was a boozer - a partyer. I tried to enjoy every moment that I could. All I wanted to do was have fun and enjoy myself, you know." It was this sense of adventure that had prompted the 18-year-old to leave Edinburgh in 1982 for a new life in the United States of America. He now wishes he had never gone. "I heard everything about America - a great country and all the rest of it," he says. "But it's nothing of the sort when you get over here. It's not a great country. It's a poxy country. Live here long enough and you'll see it. "It's not a great country at all." The former US marine has renounced his American citizenship, but is bitter that the British government has done little to help his case so far. "They've not done nothing. They won't intervene until it comes down to the wire," he says. "I renounced my American citizenship years ago. I don't want to be a bloody American no more. "I never thought of myself as an American anyway - I was always Scottish. My dad tricked us and told us we could change it when we were 21. It was 18! "I don't need any document to tell me what I am," he adds, fist on chest. "It's right in here." If Kenny is frightened of being executed, he tries not to show it. Instead he continually cracks jokes about it - right down to settling down in the electric chair with a box of popcorn. "I'm not worried about it," he says with a shrug. "It won't happen until all my appeals are done. "Everybody starts panicking, saying 'Christ, he's got two days to live!' It doesn't matter, 'cos as long as my appeals are in they can't execute me till all my appeals are over. "I have got two courts to go through, then that's it - bzzz-zzz-zzz! "I'll have a box of popcorn in my hand and you can have lunch on me." KENNY's smile evaporates and his tone suddenly becomes serious again. "I'm not afraid to die," he says. "I don't give a damn, to be honest with you. "I've had enough. I want it to end, one way or another." His sense of humour is, he adds, the main reason he has managed to tough it out so long on Death Row. "I'm a jokester - a prankster," he says with a grin. "My Scottish sense of humour's with me, trust me, that's got me through." Casting a sideways glance at prison staff, he adds in conspiratorial whisper: "These people don't have any sense of humour at all." His sense of fun certainly comes through during the interview, when he's happy to "strike a pose" or pull a face for the photographer. Vanity also prompts him to ask for "no shots of my nails, please" - they're bitten down to the quick - and he jokingly requests pictures to be taken "from the chest up". "What do you need that big lens for?" he demands. "Christ, my face is bad enough without you getting close-ups!" He outdoes Sean Connery with a pretty mean impression of his hero. "Shhho, whatsh next on the agenda?" he quips, Big Tam style, waiting for the next question with one eyebrow raised. He adds that his biggest battle is the daily fight against the boredom of being stuck in his cell 23 hours a day. "There's nothing to do," he sighs bitterly. "On a regular day I'll sit in my cell until it's recreation. Then I'll go up to recreation, play cards, come back in, watch TV, go to bed - that's it. "Or I'll write letters. I'm either watching TV, writing letters, listening to the radio, tapes . . ." Kenny's thoughts often drift to his son Sean - named after his hero, Connery - whom he hasn't seen since he was three months old. The baby he once held in his arms will be 15 in October, and Kenny is not even sure the teenager knows that his father is still alive. "I tried, but my wife ignored the letters," he says. "All the Christmas presents and stuff I sent over the years, birthday cards . . . I don't know if it got to him or not. "As far as I know she told him I'm dead, so she most likely threw those away. "He was a bonnie laddie, too, a gorgeous laddie. My mum and dad said he was the spitting image of me when I was a bairn." He also spends time dreaming about what he will do if he ever returns home. "What I want to do is go around Scotland, and take photographs of all the castles," he says. "I want to take some halogen lamps with me and light the castles up, and do a whole book on Scottish castles. It's my idea - don't steal it!" When night falls, sleep does not come easily. Aside from the memories of home which crowd in, Kenny has been diagnosed with sleep apnoea - a condition in which chronic snoring stops his breathing while he sleeps. "Trust me, you'd never want to sleep next to me," he laughs. It's a reminder that 14 years with little human contact, let alone any with the opposite sex, is a very long time. "Yes," he confesses in a low whisper, "I'm ready to explode." Kenny has had some "escape", as he puts it, from the frustrations of prison in letters he's received from Death Row "groupies" - women who write to inmates with romantic or sexual fantasies. But he adds that's all stopped because of his relationship with Karen Torley, the mother-of-four who co-ordinates the Kenny Richey Campaign from her home in Cambuslang, Glasgow. He wears a wedding ring - and it's not from his former marriage - and refers to Karen jokingly as "the wife", but he's reluctant to talk about their relationship. Asked if they intend to marry if he's released, he says: "I don't know if she'd respond to that or not." But when it comes to the question of what he would have done if Karen hadn't come into his life he is unequivocal. "Died," he says simply. "It's her help that's dug me up. It's got a lot of people involved that's going to end up getting me out." However, Kenny has had his hopes raised and dashed so many times he is reluctant to let himself get excited about the latest appeal or the calls for a moratorium on the death penalty. Ohio state representative Shirley Smith, who is campaigning for a moratorium on executions, visited him in prison last month to discuss his case. "She said something weird. She was talking about 'you're going to get out, you're going to get out'," he says. "I said, 'Aye, I know I'm going to get out in about two years or something.' "She looked at me, and said: 'I wouldn't say that.' It kind of made me think she knew something I didn't. "We'll see." He says he'd be pleased if Shirley Smith's bid for a moratorium succeeds - but only for the sake of the other inmates on Death Row. "I want my case to go the full whack," he explains. "I want it to go all the way. Either cut me loose or kill me, but put an end to it." 'I renounced my US citizenship years ago' CHAINED: After 13 years in prison Kenny Richey is barely recognisable as the young Scot who had such high hopes for a new life in the United States INMATE A194764: Kenny is sensitive about photos of his hands - his nails are bitten down to the quick "I heard America was great - live here long enough and you see it is a poxy country" - Kenny Richey 'I have got two courts to go through then that's it - bzzzt' "One of the most compelling cases of innocence we have seen" - Amnesty International JAILED: Tom Richey, brother of Kenny, is also a convicted killer WITHIN THESE WALLS: Mansfield Correctional Institution, where Kenny Richey is holed up for 23 hours a day after being convicted of the murder of two-year-old Cynthia Collins, who died following a fire at the apartment complex where they both lived LAUGHING AT DEATH: "I'll have a box of popcorn in my hand and you can have lunch on me," jokes Kenny, who says that his sense of humour has helped him through some the darkest moments of his 13 years on Ohio's Death Row Tomorrow: Eileen Richey's pilgrimage to see son she hasn't hugged for 18 years The Edinburgh Evening News is backing the campaign by Kenny Richey's supporters in Scotland and the USA to grant him a new trial. You can help by signing the petition which will be delivered to the authorities in Ohio For the attention of Bob Taft, State Governor, Columbus, Ohio We demand an immediate re-trial for Kenny Richey Full Name: Address: Cut out and send to: Kenny Richey Appeal, Evening News, 108 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AS SCOTLAND <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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