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In
January, the horrors of the death penalty were exposed when the state
of Ohio copped a plea bargain with death-row inmate Kenny Richey.
Richey was sentenced in 1987 to Ohio’s death row after being convicted
for deliberately starting a 1986 fire that left two-year old Cynthia
Collins dead.
The
plea deal reduced the trumped-up murder charges to involuntary
manslaughter and child endangerment. After pleading no contest to the
lesser charges, Richey was released with time served.
During
his time in the Mansfield, Ohio, state penitentiary, Richey was known
worldwide as the innocent Scot on death row. A native of Edinburgh,
Scotland, he spent nearly 21 years as a condemned inmate for what human
rights groups have called the crime that never was.
The
prosecution’s story was that Richey had committed arson to seek revenge
on his ex-girlfriend who was sleeping with a new lover in the apartment
directly downstairs from the unit where the child slept.
Two-year-old
Cynthia had been left alone that night in June 1986 while her mother
partied. According to friends and the local Child Welfare Services,
this was something that happened regularly. But the prosecution claimed
that Richey had agreed to babysit the child that night so he could gain
access to the apartment and carry out his plan to kill his former
lover.
Richey
was tried and sentenced to death in the midst of a disturbing media
circus that was carefully fuelled by a crooked prosecutor named Randall
Basinger. During the trial, Basinger withheld critical exculpatory
evidence and coerced witnesses to give false testimony against Richey.
The prosecutor turned himself into a darling of the media, and the
spotlight boosted his career and carried him on to victory in his bid
for a position as an elected Ohio judge.
Like
most people caught up in the criminal justice system, Kenny Richey’s
poor financial situation sealed his fate when he was assigned an
incompetent defense attorney. In this case, however, his trial attorney
was so incompetent that he waved Richey‘s right to a trial by jury and
sat in pitiful silence while Prosecutor Basinger buried Richey in front
of a
three-judge
panel.
Kenny’s
nightmare on death row now seems almost unreal. He was once forced into
a chair by prison guards, who shaved his head in preparation for his
horrifying death in Ohio’s electric chair. He came within one short
hour of execution that day, but a court-ordered stay saved his life.
Over the years Kenny would be placed under several other death
warrants, but all of them would be stayed by the courts.
Nearly
two decades after the trial, two of the three witnesses for the
prosecution recanted their stories and claimed that they were coerced
by Basinger to lie under oath. Trial testimony given by the
prosecution’s arson expert was dismissed as junk science. And it was
discovered that the major piece of evidence used against Richey, a
swatch of carpet recovered from the burned apartment, which tested
positive for accelerants, was only tested after it had been stored
directly under a gas pump outside of the police station.
An
even more shocking piece of evidence that Basinger withheld from the
trial was that little Cynthia Collins was fascinated by fire. In the
months leading up to her death, she had started at least three fires
that were put out by the local fire department.
In
2005, the Sixth Circuit court of appeals overturned the conviction and
ordered the state of Ohio to retry Richey or set him free. The state
chose to retry him. It is no
doubt that a new trial with Kenny’s new, competent defense attorneys,
along with a worldwide mobilization of supporters, could have exposed
this case as a frame-up. But Richey’s failing health and severe heart
problems led family members and supporters to fear the stress that a
new trial would put on Kenny.
Richey
has survived multiple heart attacks and suffers from 60 percent
blockage of his arteries. His two-decades-long nightmare has also left
him with diabetes. It was under these circumstances that Richey agreed
to the plea bargain, which essentially charged him with being a bad
babysitter. But it should be noted that witnesses were available to
testify in a new trial that Richey never agreed to babysit the child
that night.
Kenny
Richey’s long-awaited release is being celebrated by anti-death-penalty
campaigners. But in the battle for abolition, the rare victory is won
only after the hammer of the unjust court system crushes the lives of
its victims. Richey is no exception; not only has he walked away from
death row in devastatingly poor health but he has reentered a world
that he does not recognize.
Kenny
is now back in his beloved Scotland. He has told that press that since
his release he has considered suicide more than ever. He’s struggling
to cope with the fast-paced high-tech world and with rebuilding
relationships. He’s facing surgery to deal with his heart problems
while searching for a job to support himself.
The
bargain Kenny made with the state of Ohio left him unable to sue or
receive any money for damages. Prosecutor Basinger—now Judge Basinger,
whose career was built on this frame-up trial—is still benefiting from
the conviction.
Socialist
Action covered Kenny Richey’s case and participated in the struggle to
free him from him from death row. We are celebrating his release, but
it would be impossible for us to not taste the bittersweetness in this
hard-won victory.
The
struggle to end the death penalty is one of the most important battles
of our time. We must fight for full abolition and mobilize in the
streets in defense of the countless victims like Kenny Richey. Down
with the death penalty! Abolition now!
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