Kenny Richey

Kenneth Thomas Richey (born August 3, 1964 in Zeist) is a British-US dual citizen, born to a Scottish mother and American father, who was raised in Scotland but moved to Ohio, United States to join his father in late 1982.

He was on death row for 21 years in Ohio after being convicted in January 1987 of murdering two-year-old Cynthia Collins by arson in 1986. In December 2007, he accepted a plea bargain, which led to his release from death row and return to Scotland on January 9, 2008.

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 or admits to the charges. In real terms, this means that the accused admits there is enough evidence to convict without admitting to guilt.

During his 20-year incarceration, doubts arose about the entirely circumstantial evidence that led to conviction, particularly the forensic evidence. This led to a campaign to re-examine the evidence. Described by Amnesty International as, "…one of the most compelling cases of apparent innocence that human rights campaigners have ever seen,"

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.

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