Kenny Richey
Kenneth "Kenny" Thomas Richey (born August 3, 1964 in Zeist, the Netherlands) 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's case became something of a cause célèbre in the United Kingdom.
Read more about Kenny Richey: Incident, Prosecution Case, Defense Case, Trial and Appeals, Plea Bargain, Subsequent Criminal Charges, 2012 Imprisonment, Personal Life