Please vote for a retrial on Kenny Richy, Innocent Scott on USA Death row: http://www.edinburghnews.com/ click on pic of Kenny at top right hand side of site. Add email address and submit. http://members.tripod.de/kennyrichey/ All Links to campaign sites Kenny says the support the people of Edinburgh have shown is 'brilliant' Evening News petition gathers pace JENNIFER VEITCH DEATH Row Scot Kenny Richey was today said to be "delighted" after more than 1000 people backed the Evening News campaign to grant him a re-trial. Following a series of articles, 1051 people have so far signed the petition launched last week to lobby authorities in the United States for another hearing. Some 525 people from Edinburgh have signed up, but 417 signatures have come from the United States and across the world, posted on the Evening News website. Another 109 have been posted on a related campaign website. Kenny, 36, who grew up in Edinburgh, was convicted of starting the fire which killed two-year-old Cynthia Collins in Columbus Grove, Ohio, in 1986. The child's mother, Hope, claimed Kenny had agreed to babysit, and the prosecution alleged he started the fire to kill a former girlfriend and her new lover in the apartment below. Kenny was sentenced to death after judges decided he had deliberately disconnected the smoke detector in the apartment. However there is evidence that the child's mother did this herself on the night of the fire, and that Cynthia had a history of starting fires. Kenny has always protested his innocence, and refused a plea bargain before his trial which would have saved him from the electric chair. After 13 execution dates, his Boston attorneys are still trying to have new evidence presented in court to over-turn his conviction. Kenny, who has spent the past 13 years on Death Row at Mansfield Correctional Institute, was today said to be overwhelmed by the response so far to the Evening News campaign. Karen Torley, co-ordinator of the Kenny Richey Campaign, said: "I spoke to Kenny earlier on today and he was asking me all about it. " He said it is absolutely fantastic that people from Edinburgh are getting to know more about his case. "I told him how many signatures there were and he said that was brilliant. He was really, really pleased about it." His lawyers argue that Kenny was convicted on circumstantial evidence. They want to present evidence from leading experts to show that forensic tests - which indicated the fire was started deliberately - used contaminated samples and were scientifically flawed. They argue that the fire was most likely started by discarded smoking materials. A witness for the prosecution in Kenny's trial, John Butler, has also claimed he was used by the prosecution to portray Kenny as a violent sociopath. Having looked at the new evidence, Mr Butler told the Evening News he now believes that Kenny is innocent. Kenny's supporters also believe that his case was prejudiced because the assistant prosecutor, Randall Basinger, was running for election as judge at the time, and Ms Torley added: "We thought people in Edinburgh had probably heard his story a million times. "But now they have heard different things, including the story from John Butler who had never spoken before. "We are delighted that we are getting all these signatures and hopefully the people in Ohio who matter will start looking at his case." She urged Evening News readers to give their backing to the campaign. "It is important that as many people as possible get involved. They can make a difference." 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