Kenneth Thomas Richey[1] (born August 3, 1964) is a British-US dual citizen who in 1987 was convicted in Ohio of murdering a two-year-old girl and sentenced to death. He spent 21 years on death row before re-examination of his case led to his release, after he accepted a plea bargain in which he pleaded no contest to manslaughter.
Richey was born in the Netherlands to a Scottish mother and an American father. He was raised in Edinburgh, Scotland but moved to Ohio to join his father in late 1982. He served in the Marines before moving into government-subsidized housing in Columbus Grove.[2]
On June 30, 1986, a fire broke out in the apartment complex in which Richey lived. The fire originated in an apartment where Hope Collins lived with her two-year-old daughter, Cynthia; Cynthia died of smoke inhalation.[3] Prosecutors argued that Richey started the fire and was targeting his ex-girlfriend, Candy Barchet, who lived in the same apartment complex.[4] At the death penalty sentencing hearing, evidence was presented regarding Richey's history of mental health problems; a psychologist and social worker testified that Richey had borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and histrionic behavior disorder.[5]
He was convicted in January 1987 of murder by arson, following which he spent 21 years on death row.
In December 2007, he accepted a plea bargain, which led to his release from death row and return to Scotland on January 9, 2008.[6]
Richey's plea bargain involved pleading 'no contest' to manslaughter, child endangering and breaking and entering. He was sentenced to time served, with the murder and arson charges dropped. A 'no contest' plea is not an admission of guilt. The accused, by entering a no contest plea, neither disputes nor admits to the charges.
During his 20-year incarceration, doubts arose about the circumstantial evidence that led to conviction, particularly the forensic evidence. This led to a campaign to re-examine the evidence. Amnesty International described the case as, "…one of the most compelling cases of apparent innocence that human rights campaigners have ever seen."[7]
Richey was granted British citizenship in 2003, becoming the first to benefit from a change in British nationality law regarding the status of children of British mothers and non-British fathers born outside the United Kingdom.[8]
After returning to the United States in 2010, Richey was arrested in Mississippi and charged in Ohio with phoning in threatening messages to Judge Randall Basinger (who was assistant county prosecutor at the time of Richey's 1987 murder trial). Despite Richey's claim that the threats were merely a drunken prank, Visiting Judge Dale Crawford found Richey guilty and sentenced him to three years in prison.[9] [10] Richey was released after two years and spent some time working with the American charity Sanctuary Quarters, which builds houses for homeless veterans.[11]
In October 2019 Richey was arrested in Columbus, Ohio after posting a video threatening Judge Randall Basinger, his children, and his grandchildren. In July 2020 he was convicted of making threats and sentenced to 12 years in jail.[12]