MSPs were urged yesterday to sign a court petition in support of the death row Scot Kenny Richey.

Richey, sentenced to death in 1987 after being convicted of arson and aggravated murder of a two-year-old girl in Ohio in June 1986, is awaiting an appeal decision by the 6th Circuit Court — his last hope unless the US Supreme Court agrees to hear the 39-year-old’s case.

Over 150 MPs have signed a Westminster Early Day Motion expressing doubts over the safety of Richey’s conviction and urging the Government to intervene.

Tony Blair has pledged to look into the case, but frustrated by the lack of public action by ministers, Richey’s legal team is also using an amicus curiae — friends of the court — document to bring the representations of MSPs and MPs directly to court.

Richey’s partner Karen, who adopts his surname, said that he had been “deeply depressed” in recent months and had publicly expressed a wish to die rather than spend more time in his small prison cell.

“Listening to him talk like this is heartbreaking because he knows he has the support of many, many people worldwide, but he really, really does need the support of the Government, to ask that he is treated properly,” she said.

Ms Richey, from Cambuslang, said that he welcomed the amicus curiae, prepared by Scottish lawyers including senior counsel Mungo Bovey, QC.

Ms Richey and Clive Stafford-Smith, the British-born lawyer and veteran campaigner against America’s capital penalty, were at the Parliament to drum up support for Richey. Mr Stafford-Smith said that intervention by Mr Blair could make a “huge difference”, pointing out that the Government recently filed a brief on behalf of Krishna Maharaj, a London businessman on Florida’s death row for a double-murder he denies committing. “

Far be it for me to accuse them of valuing Scottish people less than they value English people, but you do wonder what on earth is going on, why they do nothing on behalf of Kenny,” he said.

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