July 14 OHIO: Petro appeals to Supreme Court The state's attorney general has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse an appeals court ruling that threw out the death sentence of Kenneth Richey in an 18-year case that a prosecutor plans to retry. Richey, a dual U.S.-British citizen, was sentenced to death for setting a fire in 1987, killing a 2-year-old girl in northwest Ohio. The case has attracted interest in Scotland, where Richey grew up. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in January that Richey received incompetent legal counsel at his trial and ordered him freed or retried. Putnam County Prosecutor Gary Lammers is asking a grand jury to bring new charges, which could include another death sentence. Richey was convicted in the 1986 death of 2-year-old Cynthia Collins. Prosecutors say Richey intended to kill his ex-girlfriend but ended up killing the child in the fire in the northwest Ohio town of Columbus Grove. Richey maintained he did not start the fire, and numerous questions have been raised about the evidence used to convict him. Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro said Thursday that the 6th Circuit erred in requiring the state to prove that Richey intended to kill Cynthia, not her mother. Petro said that if Richey set the fire and killed anyone, it is still murder under Ohio law. (source: Associated Press) MASSACHUSETTS: Romney testifies in favor of state death penalty Gov. Mitt Romney insisted on Thursday that no innocent people would be executed under his plan to return the death penalty to Massachusetts, but acknowledged that he could not guarantee that the plan would be completely foolproof. Romney told the joint House and Senate Judiciary Committee that his proposal would ensure that no innocent people were put to death, by including multiple levels of review and a unique "no doubt" standard of guilt. Romney has said his bill is an answer to death penalty opponents who say that innocent or undeserving people could be put to death, claiming that his plan was a "gold standard" that would not execute anyone who did not truly deserve capital punishment. But when pressed by lawmakers, he acknowledged he could not definitively say that the proposal would be completely foolproof. "A 100 percent guarantee? I don't think there's such a thing in life. Except perhaps death -- for all of us," he said. But a few minutes later, he said he believed that no innocent people would be ensnared, calling the proposal "as foolproof a death penalty as exists." Rep. Michael A. Costello, D-Newburyport, one of the lawmakers who questioned Romney about the plan, said that Romney's acknowledgment "does knock out the initial premise" that the plan is foolproof. "It isn't. The governor admits it himself," he said. "I think they put the best and brightest together to try to come up with a foolproof policy, and it isn't foolproof." Many of the lawmakers who questioned Romney said they were death penalty opponents, but a few spoke in favor of the bill. Rep. Philip Travis, D-Rehoboth, said the proposal was the "right approach." Senate Minority Leader Brian Lees, R-Springfield, said that "the silent majority is working and can't get in here to testify" in favor of the bill. Massachusetts is one of just a dozen states without capital punishment. The last execution here was in 1947. Recent efforts to reinstate it have failed, and any death penalty bill faces a tough battle in the Democrat-controlled Legislature. Romney filed his legislation in April, seeking capital punishment for "very, very rare circumstances," such as terrorism, serial killing and torturing, or murdering police or other public servants. He estimated that only 1 or 2 people a year would face the penalty in the state every year. Romney said his plan would have the nation's highest level of proof for ensuring that only the guilty were executed, using scientific evidence such as DNA and multiple checks and balances, including review by the Supreme Judicial Court. One opponent at the Statehouse for Thursday's hearing was Robert Curley, the father of Jeffrey Curley, a 10-year-old Cambridge boy who was kidnapped and killed in 1997. He said that no system of capital punishment is without fault. "The system isn't fair. Any time you become involved in a court proceeding on any level, it doesn't take long to figure out that the deck is stacked against people who can't afford a good lawyer," he said outside the hearing. (source: Associated Press)
