A SCOTTISH-AMERICAN man sentenced to death for killing a two-year-old girl in a fire in Ohio in 1986 had his conviction thrown out by a court yesterday after 18 years in jail awaiting execution.

Kenneth Richey, whose case prompted the intervention of Tony Blair, the Pope, the late Cardinal Thomas Winning, the European Parliament and Amnesty International, must either be retried or freed within 90 days, the Federal Appeals Court in Cincinnati ruled.

Lawyers for Mr Richey, whose father was an American serviceman but who was brought up in Edinburgh by his Scottish mother, produced evidence over the years that pointed strongly to his innocence, including a study concluding that the fire was probably an accident and possibly caused by the toddler herself.

The winning argument was that his first lawyer, William Kluge, a court-appointed public defender, was incompetent.

Yesterday Mr Richey’s fiancée, Karen Richey, 41, from Cambuslang, outside Glasgow, spoke to him by telephone and was stunned into silence when she heard that he could be free in 90 days.

“Then there was crying, shouting, screaming, the lot,” she said. “The whole time has been an absolute nightmare for both of us, but we both fought long and hard for this moment. It’s all been worth it. There were times when he thought this would never happen. I can’t wait to see him come through my front door. We just want to be a normal family and set up home together here.”

She called Mr Richey’s mother, Eileen, 60, in Edinburgh as soon as she heard the news. “I had to repeat it five times. She just couldn’t take it in. Then she got all emotional,” she said.

Ms Richey, née Torley, a mother of four, began to write to Mr Richey ten years ago and adopted his surname after they became engaged. With Amnesty International, she campaigned tirelessly for him. She visited him in prison, as did two of her children, Katie, 19, and Mark, 15.

Rosemary Burnett, Amnesty International’s Scottish director, said: “He has had something like 13 hearings over the years and all have gone against him. So we were just hoping for clemency. Now we’re thrilled he has won this one on the grounds the trial was unfair and his counsel was incompetent. It is just astonishing it has taken so long to get to this.”

Mr Richey, who moved from Scotland to the United States to live with his father in 1982, could have been freed seven years ago if he had accepted a plea bargain, but he refused to plead guilty to a murder he said he did not commit and declared he would rather go to his grave.

Authorities had accused Mr Richey of setting fire to the flat above the one belonging to his former girlfriend, in the Ohio town of Columbus Grove with the intention of killing her and her new boyfriend. The only victim was Cynthia, 2, who had been left at home alone. Lawyers for Mr Richey have long questioned the evidence. Authorities first ruled that the fire was accidental, but claimed at trial that Mr Richey had started it deliberately by pouring paint thinner and petrol on to the carpet and setting fire to it.

In 1996 arson experts said that the ruling was based on “unsound scientific principles” and that the fire was probably the result of smoking materials being discarded carelessly. Amnesty had said that the toddler was known to have played with lighters, cigarettes and matches and had started at least three fires. Mr Kluge failed to raise this at cross-examination.

Mr Richey was convicted partly on circumstantial evidence — namely that he was at a party in the same complex as his former girlfriend’s flat on the night of the fire and he was also accused of threatening to burn down the building.

The trial was conducted by three judges without a jury on the advice of the defence lawyer. Prosecutors credited him with trying to save the toddler, but the judges refused to accept that.

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