WASHINGTON – An appeals court was wrong to throw out the conviction and death sentence of a U.S.-British citizen in a fire that killed an Ohio toddler, the Supreme Court said Monday in the second death penalty ruling under new Chief Justice John Roberts to go against an inmate.
The unanimous opinion against Kenneth Richey came in a case that had stirred international attention, including a letter from the late Pope John Paul II and a motion signed by 150 members of the British Parliament.
| In action taken Monday by the Supreme Court, the justices:
* Turned down an appeal from former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds, who alleges she was fired for reporting possible wrongdoing by other linguists involved in counterterrorism investigations. * Refused to overturn a $116 million judgment against the Palestine Liberation Organization in the deaths of a Jewish couple near the West Bank. * Said it would review a patent case involving eBay Inc. and a small Virginia business. * Declined to consider striking down Iowa’s law restricting where sex offenders can live. * Refused to revive a lawsuit against Texas prosecutor Ronnie Earle by LaCresha Murray, who was 11 years old when she was charged with killing a toddler. |
Monday’s unsigned decision was a sharp rebuke to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which had said that Richey received incompetent legal help in his trial and that prosecutors needed to prove he intended to kill the child.
The justices said the appeals court made mistakes in both of those holdings, relying in part on evidence that may not have been properly filed. The case returns to the appeals court in Cincinnati.
Prosecutors contend that Richey set the blaze to get even with his former girlfriend, who lived in the same apartment and had a new boyfriend sleeping over. The fire on June 30, 1986, killed 2-year-old Cynthia Collins.
Richey, who grew up in Scotland, moved to Ohio in the early 1980s to live with his American father. He holds dual U.S. and British citizenship.
A divided panel of the 6th Circuit described sloppy police work and raised questions about whether the fire was even arson. Richey was outside the apartment in the northwest Ohio town of Columbus Grove and risked his life to save the girl, whose nickname was Scootie, the appeals court said.
A documentary had raised inconsistencies in the case, prompting a campaign for Richey’s release. The late pope wrote a letter backing his cause, and 150 members of the British Parliament signed a motion backing Richey’s claim of innocence.
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