DEATH ROW: Kenny Richey faces the threat of execution
Forensic expert tells of Richey trial doubt
Australian backs Death Row campaign
JENNIFER VEITCH
ONE of Australia's leading forensic experts is to back Death Row Scot
Kenny Richey's campaign for a retrial, it emerged today.
Tony Cafe, who has 18 years' experience as a fire investigator, is to
review the forensic evidence used to sentence Kenny to death.
Kenny, 36, who grew up in Edinburgh, was convicted of causing the fire
which killed two-year-old Cynthia Collins in Columbus Grove, Ohio in 1986.
His defence are still trying to bring new evidence that the fire was
started accidentally to a fresh hearing.
The prosecution still maintains Kenny started the fire with gasoline
and paint thinners in a bid to kill his former girlfriend and her new lover,
who were sleeping in the apartment below Cynthia.
However, tests which revealed traces of accelerants were not carried
out until after the carp
et lay in a nearby dump for several days and was laid out in front of a
petrol pump. Mr Cafe, who i
s a member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, said both these
actions could have contamina
ted the samples.
He also argued that if gasoline and paint thinner had been used, the
carpet should have burne
d right through.
"If an accelerant was used on a carpet, then the carpet would probably
burn away, and so woul
d not be suitable to transfer in recognisable form to a tip," he said.
"Taking samples from dumped
carpet at a tip and then saying the fire was deliberately lit because of
positive samples is tantam
ount to being criminal.
"It is a totally ridiculous argument because there is a serious risk
that the samples were co
ntaminated. It really shows how flawed the investigation was. They must have
been absolutely desper
ate to take samples from debris removed from the site."
Mr Cafe's comments follow reports from experts in the United States
that the fire was started
accidentally. Forensic experts Richard Armstrong and Andrew Custer have
concluded that the tests u
sed to show the fire was arson were scientifically flawed, and they believe
that the fire was most
likely started by discarded smoking materials.
Today campaign organiser Karen Torley said Mr Cafe could bring fresh
hope to Kenny's bid for
a retrial.
"If accelerants had been used on carpet there would have been no
carpet to go to the tip in t
he first place, considering we are supposed to be talking two cans of petrol
and or paint thinner,"
she said.
"And this man picked this up without seeing much of the material on
the tests. I am sending h
im all the material as his opinion on this could prove very good for Kenny's
case."
She added: "This is so wonderful to have people from all over the
world who are willing to he
lp Kenny.
"All of this gives us great hope that we can show conclusively that
Kenny is indeed innocent.
There was no crime.
"There was a tragic, terrible accidental house fire in which little
Cynthia Collins lost her
life due to smoke inhalation. She was a victim of all of this, as is Kenny.
"We have proof coming out of our ears here that this fire was not
arson. Yet they will not so
far listen."
Almost 1500 people from Edinburgh and across the world have signed the
Evening News petition
lobbying the US authorities to instigate an immediate re-trial.
Kenny has only two more courts of appeal left before he faces
execution in Ohio's electric ch
air.
He has continually 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 lawyers, based in Boston, are still
trying to have new evidence
presented in court to over-turn his conviction.
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