death penalty news January 29, 2005
OHIO: I'll be at the prison gates to hug my boy Kenny Richey's ailing father wept yesterday as he told of his joy at the legal victory that has spared his son from execution. James Richey, who is battling inoperable cancer, said he lives for the day when his son walks free from Mansfield Correctional Institution in Ohio, a prospect raised this week when a federal appeals court quashed his conviction for murder and lifted his death sentence. "It would mean the world to me to be able to hug my son. I would like that so much," said Mr Richey, 66, who plans to make the 2,000-mile journey from his home to the jail once his son is released. "I'll be there at those gates when he comes out. I just want to wrap my arms around him and tell him that I love him," he said. Paying tribute to the hundreds of well-wishers whose support helped carry his son through 18 years on death row, he added: "If there hadn't been this level of interest, Kenny Richey would have been spoken about in the past tense, because he would have been executed a long time ago. "If it wasn't for the people of Scotland and the lawyers and everybody who fought for him, my son would be a dead man. God bless them." Kenny Richey left his home in Edinburgh in 1982 to be with his American father, who was divorced from his mother and lived in Ohio. Four year later, he was sentenced to death for setting fire to the home of a former girlfriend, whose two-year-old daughter perished in the blaze. For years, his father visited him on death row, but they have now not seen each other since the summer of 2001. "He had an appeal going through then and we were almost positive we were going to win that one, so I told Kenny, 'I'm not going to visit any more until you walk out of that prison.' "Unfortunately time dragged on, and I've not seen him for going on for four years," said Mr Richey, who had surgery last year and is undergoing hormone treatment for advanced prostate cancer. He now lives in Washington state. "Kenny tried to call me a couple of days ago, but I was out of the house. He wanted to give me the good news himself, but I wasn't here for the big moment. Then my daughter-in-law called me. It sounded too good to be true." He added: "I'm still in the clouds, this has liberated me. It's about time somebody realised what a terrible mistake they have made. That's 18 years that he's lost of his life. He's lost his good health, he's missed out on Christmases, New Years, birthdays - just evenings together with his family. "There's never an opportunity of getting it back, it's gone so I can well imagine how bitter he is." Kenny Richey, speaking exclusively to The Scotsman from jail on Thursday, expressed his anger at the deficient handling of his case by his original defence lawyer, William Kluge, in 1986, calling him a "moron". However, his father said: "My anger originally was vented on Bill Kluge, but since then I have realised how failed our justice system is and so I don't feel so much animosity towards him as I do pity. "It's just a shame that he wasted all that money going to law school and ended up being the plumber who blocked up all the pipes." Kenny Richey has dismissed the notion that he could enter into a plea bargain - "It's a matter of honour. No bargains, no deals, no nothing," he said. His lawyer, Ken Parsigian, plans to speak to state prosecutors next week to determine whether they plan to appeal against the court's latest decision, which could potentially keep him in prison for years, or proceed to a retrial, which he is confident of winning. "It's been quite a week, but what case could be more important than this, a case involving a man's life?" said Mr Parsigian. "I've never had a win as good as this, and now I've got it I want to keep it." (source: Scorsman) -------------- Richey's son wants to meet him at last Kenny Richey's teenage son yesterday said he was determined to meet his father for the first time after hearing that his Death Row conviction had been overturned. Sean Richey, 19, had little hope of getting to know the former US marine, sent to Ohio's death row after the murder conviction two decades ago. His Scottish father, who has dual US-British citizenship, was put on death row in 1986 and stayed there for 18 years until Tuesday, when the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals overturned his conviction and sentence. At his home in Baxter, Minnesota, Sean Richey spoke of his shock at the news. "This is nuts," he said, shaking his head. "This isn't something that happens every day." Richey, 40, became something of a celebrity in the UK, where two documentaries that questioned his guilt were made. Britons wrote thousands of letters protesting against his conviction. Famous activists, even Pope John Paul II, supported his cause. "I didn't know how big this case was," said Sean Richey, who also has a young daughter his father has never met. "Susan Sarandon and all of these celebrities and the Pope? Oh, my God!" Sean said he knew little about his father and nothing about the stir his case had made around the world. His mother, Wendy Richey, mainly shielded him from any information, he said, although he did remember reading one or two letters from his father. Mrs Richey was not available for comment yesterday. Sean said he had always wondered about his father but never wrote back. "I wanted to write to him," he said. "But what do you say to someone you've never met?" Sean has had some scrapes with the law - including a conviction for assault - and he never graduated from high school. He has plans to finish high school and then go to college. Meeting his father might help him understand his own behaviour, he said. "That would fill an empty spot," he said. "Things haven't been the easiest because of that." His parents divorced when he was just four months old, only two months before Richey was arrested and imprisoned. It was too early to say how or when he would reach his father, Sean said, but he was determined they would meet. (source: Scotsman)
