RICHEY JAIL APPEAL
Ex-Death Row Scot claims trial over threats was ‘rigged’ from start
FORMER Death Row inmate Kenny Richey plans to appeal his conviction for threatening a former judge.
The Scot was caged for 12 years last month for mouthing off towards Randall Basinger in Facebook rants posted last year.
But the former US Marine, originally from Edinburgh, has written to the court contesting the “wrongful, misguided and erroneous” verdict. In a penciled note, Richey added: “My trial was biased, unfair and rigged from the onset. As was the jury itself.
“The court failed to provide me with an adequate attorney to properly and effectively represent me.”
Richey claims he tried to fire his attorney, Greg Myers, before the hearing, accusing the lawyer of failing to interview witnesses, gather evidence or provide details of the prosecution’s case.
The 55-year-old also criticises Judge Dale Crawford for denying him the chance to swap lawyers and telling the jury of his “past acts” going back 37 years.
He signs off by referencing recent civil unrest sweeping the
States. Richey added: “I can see why people in this country have been rioting in protests against the injustices committed by the law of America.
“This case is just another instance of corruption and abuse of power by the law.”
Basinger was the prosecutor who secured a murder conviction in 1987 against Richey over the death of a two-year-old girl in a fire in Columbus Grove, Ohio.
Richey was sentenced to death for killing Cynthia Collins, who died in the blaze at her mother’s apartment in June 1986.
He was freed in 2008 after entering a “no contest” plea to manslaughter, child endangering and breaking and entering in a plea bargain.