U.S. court overturns Scot's death row conviction

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A native of Scotland convicted and sent to Ohio's death row for setting a fatal fire did not get a competent defense, and must either get a new trial or be set free, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday.

For the second time in the legal saga of Kenneth Richey, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit found his lawyer failed to contest prosecutors' arguments that a jealous, drunken Richey, then 21, set the 1986 fire that killed a 2-year-old girl he was babysitting after a night of partying.

The Cincinnati court gave the state of Ohio 90 days to retry Richey in the death of Cynthia Collins, or free him from an Ohio prison. The local prosecutor could not be reached for comment.

Richey, who had been diagnosed with behavioral problems before coming to the United States to live with his American father, became a cause celebre because of doubts about his guilt.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 ordered the appeals court to reconsider aspects of its previous ruling when it first overturned Richey's conviction.

The appeals court reiterated its finding that Richey's original lawyer had been "deficient" by not rebutting the prosecution's claim that he had used stolen gasoline and paint thinner to set fire to an apartment to kill his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend, who were in the apartment below.

The incident followed a night of drinking and marijuana smoking that led Richey at one point to pass out in some bushes. He had been asked by Collins' mother to babysit the girl while she went out.

Witnesses said he later he repeatedly tried to reenter the apartment to try to save the girl.

In his 1986 trial, Richey's lawyer hired an unqualified forensic expert who ended up testifying for prosecutors that he agreed with their experts about the fire's origins, the court's ruling said.

Later, two experts brought in for Richey's appeal showed prosecutors' experts used outdated testing methods on a rug that had been recovered from a garbage dump. They concluded the fire could have started from cigarette smoldering on a couch.

Prosecutors could not be reached for comment on Friday.