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Kenneth "Kenny" 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,"〔(Amnesty )〕 Richey's case became something of a ''cause célèbre'' in the United Kingdom. == Incident == Around 4:15 a.m., on June 30, 1986, at the Old Farm Village Apartment complex in Columbus Grove, Ohio, a fire broke out in the second-floor apartment home of Hope Collins and her two-year-old daughter Cynthia Collins. As a result of the fire, Cynthia Collins died from asphyxia related to smoke inhalation. Hope Collins was not there at the time, as she had left to spend the night with a boyfriend after a party with neighbors from adjacent second-floor apartments at the complex. When the party was concluding, she invited Kenny Richey to sleep in her apartment in return for minding her sleeping daughter. The Fire Chief initially blamed the fire on an electric fan, and the burnt remains of the interior of the apartment were removed. The Fire Chief then asked the Assistant State Fire Marshal Robert Cryer to investigate further. After investigating the scene, Cryer told the prosecutor's office that he believed that the fire was arson, a conclusion that eventually led to Kenny Richey being convicted and sentenced to death on charges of aggravated murder with a specification alleging murder in the course of arson, aggravated arson, breaking and entering (a greenhouse where he allegedly acquired the materials to start the fire), and child endangerment. As result of her actions on that night, Hope Collins pled guilty to the amended charge of involuntary manslaughter, and served a total of 45 days in prison. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kenny Richey」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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