A Briton who has been on death row in America for twenty years for killing a two-year-old in a fire has had his conviction overturned.

The appeal for Kenny Richey was decided by the United States Court of Appeal for the Sixth Circuit, the second highest court that can hear the case, on the grounds that he received inadequate legal representation during his trial in 1987.

The Court ordered that Mr Richey should be retried or released within 90 days. It is likely, however, that the prosecution will appeal today's decision, further delaying justice for him.

Mr Richey, who left his Edinburgh home to live with his American father in Ohio at the age of 18, was sentenced to death in January 1987 after being found guilty of the murder of two-year-old Cynthia Collins, who died in a fire at her mother’s apartment.

The prosecution claimed that Mr Richey, a former US Marine, started the fire because his estranged former girlfriend and her new lover - supposedly the intended targets - lived in the flat beneath. Protesting his innocence, Mr Richey refused a plea bargain which would have led to an 11-year sentence for arson and manslaughter.

He always protested his innocence, and claims that compelling new scientific evidence undermines the prosecution’s case that the fire was deliberately started.

Clive Stafford Smith, the Legal Director of Reprieve, a charity that provides investigation and legal representation to prisoners facing the death penalty, who has been involved in Mr Richey’s case for ten years, said: “It’s time for the new UK Government to step up the pressure to end this farce.

"The Ohio prosecutors have spent thousands and thousands of dollars trying to keep this plainly innocent man on death row, rather than admit that they made a mistake 20 years ago.

"Let us hope that they do not waste thousands more appealing the decision made by the Sixth Circuit today, but rather let him return to the UK and re-start his life.”

John Watson, director of Amnesty International Scotland, said: “This is fantastic news and represents the opportunity that Kenny's long fought for - the chance to clear his name in a proper trial.

“Nobody should be sent to the living hell of death row, but Kenny Richey’s 20-year ordeal came after a flawed trial and serious concerns about the Ohio justice system.

“On the one had it is disturbing that it has taken this long for Ohio to look again at Kenny’s case - but now at least Kenny may be on the road to release.”

Today's development is the latest in a case which has had numerous twists and turns in the last 20 years.

In January 2005, the Court of Appeal for the Sixth Circuit overturned Mr Richey’s conviction and announced that he should be retried or released. However, the prosecution appealed.

In November that year, the US Supreme Court held that the decision to overturn Mr Richey’s conviction may not have been procedurally correct, and so asked the Court of Appeals of the Sixth Circuit to reconsider.

Mr Richey has been stuck on death row, waiting for the decision Sixth Circuit’s decision, until today.

In an interview earlier this year, Mr Richey was philosophical about starting his third decade on death row.

“It’s just another day,” he said in January. “Every day is just another day. It shouldn’t have gone on this long but it has. It’s the American way of life, I guess."

He said he believed he would be home by August and told Scottish TV’s Scotland Today: “I miss just walking around the streets. That’s one of the things I think I’ll do when I get out. Go on a long walk around Edinburgh.”

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