Kenny Richey - Personal Life

Personal Life

Kenny Richey's brother, Tom Richey, who is serving a prison sentence for murder, wrote a book about the case entitled "Kenny Richey Death Row Scot: My Brother Kenny's Fight for Justice".

Richey married Wendy Amerud while serving in the US Marine Corps. His marriage ended in divorce two months before the alleged crime, and Richey had no further contact with either his wife or son Sean until his sentence was overturned in January 2005. While on death row Richey became engaged to a Scottish woman, Karen Torley, who had written to him after seeing a documentary on his plight. She also became the organizer of the 'Kenny Richey Campaign', which campaigned for his exoneration and release. Their engagement ended in March 2006, as following the overturning of his conviction, Richey re-established his relationship with his ex-wife and son. Ms. Torley temporarily resigned as head of the Kenny Richey Campaign in June 2006, but maintained close contact with Richey and continued to campaign for his exoneration.

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 of Britain.

In August 2006, Richey, who is also diabetic, suffered another of a series of heart attacks in his prison cell. He was airlifted to hospital and underwent surgery, but made a recovery. In 2008, he was diagnosed with mouth cancer.