JACK Straw is preparing to intervene in a move that could help save condemned Scot Kenny Richey from execution in America.
Scotland on Sunday can reveal that, after almost two decades on Death Row, Richey is set to finally receive official backing from the British government.
In what would be a major breakthrough in the long-running case, the Foreign Secretary is pla
nning to make a submission to the judges considering Richey’s appeal against his conviction for starting a fire that killed a two-year-old girl in 1986.
More than 200 MPs and MSPs have already backed Richey’s case, but the government has so far resisted demands for it to support his appeal with an Amicus Curiae - "friend of the court" - brief, setting out the UK’s official objections to the death penalty in general and Richey’s conviction in particular.
The amicus curiae system allows people who are not directly affected by a case, but who believe that their opinion might influence the court, to intervene and put their views across.
Ministers have now revealed that they have been in discussion with Richey’s legal team after a request for help. Foreign Office lawyers are now in the final stages of compiling the document, which Richey’s team believes would swing the verdict his way.
Foreign Office spokesmen last night refused to confirm the impending official intervention in Richey’s case. But one minister in the department, Chris Mullin, conceded that the department is "carefully considering the recent request for the government to submit [a brief] in Mr Richey’s case, and we are consulting his trial lawyers about that. We take into account factors such as whether our intervention would assist and the nature of the legal issues involved."
A Foreign Office insider went further, saying only "technical issues" had to be resolved before the paper was completed and submitted.
Richey’s support team claimed the brief, to be lodged with the Ohio supreme court judges, would represent his "biggest breakthrough in years".
One of the condemned man’s allies said. "The signs are that Straw is listening and if he puts his foot in, that will mean the judges in America can’t just dismiss Kenny out of hand."
Clive Stafford Smith, the British human-rights lawyer who is in charge of Richey’s case, visited Edinburgh and Westminster last month to urge politicians to back the appeal. More than 150 MPs have supported a motion calling for the government to get involved.
Scotland on Sunday understands the case the case being compiled by the Foreign Office goes "far beyond" a simple restatement of the government’s opposition to the death penalty. It amounts to a point-by-point summary of concerns about the conduct of the case - but stops short of backing campaigners who claim Richey is innocent.
"We are aware of concerns about how the original trial was conducted and about the safety of the conviction, not just the decision to impose the death penalty on Kenny Richey," a Foreign Office insider said last night. "It is perfectly legitimate for us to make these points clear to the courts that are dealing with this issue without expressing any view about the innocence or guilt of the man involved."
Richey, the son of an American father and Scottish mother, grew up in Edinburgh but emigrated to the US in 1981. He was sentenced to death after being convicted of starting a fire that killed two-year-old Cynthia Collins, the daughter of his ex-girlfriend.
The prosecution alleged Richey used petrol and paint thinners to set fire to the apartment below the toddler’s bedroom in a bid to kill her mother, Hope Collins, and her new boyfriend.
However, experts have since cast doubt over the forensic tests used to decide the fire was arson. They argue the fire was accidental, most likely caused by a discarded cigarette, or even by Cynthia herself, who had a history of starting fires.
The human rights group Amnesty International claims his is "the most compelling case of innocence on Death Row".
Richey has continually protested his innocence and refused a plea bargain before his trial, which would have seen him freed from prison after serving ten years.
British ministers have consistently been accused of moving too slowly to support the cases of Death-Row Britons, but they have also struggled to convince US counterparts of their arguments in the past.
Jack Straw’s junior minister, Baroness Symons, has told campaigners that the government has drawn up a "comprehensive lobbying strategy, taking into account the possible outcomes of Mr Richey’s appeal".
Mullin added: "The British consul general recently raised our concern and interest in Mr Richey’s case with the Governor of Ohio, Bob Taft, and informed him that if Mr Richey’s appeal for a retrial is successful, we will lobby him further on Mr Richey’s behalf."
The full article contains 843 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
