Ken Richey: 17 years on death row

by Rebecca Doran

In the early morning hours of June 30, 1986, an apartment in the low-income housing complex, Old Farm Village Apartments, in Columbus Grove, Ohio, became the scene of a deadly fire that took the life of a two-year-old child named Cynthia Collins. Seven months later, under the glare of the media spotlight, a 23-year-old man named Kenny Richey had been tried and condemned to death for maliciously starting the fire that killed the child.

The son of a Scottish mother and an American father, Kenny Richey was raised in Scotland but moved to the United States at the age of 18. At the time of the fire he was unemployed and living with his father in the Old Farm Village Apartments, but he had recently found work in Scotland and was preparing to move back within a week.

As the first capital punishment case in Putnam County, Ohio, since the 1800s, the Richey trial became a sensation throughout the entire state. Prosecutor Randall Basinger, who, at that time was also running for judge, captured headlines for months with his zealous campaign to convict what he called a “psychopathic killer.”

Prosecutor Basinger’s theory was that in the early morning hours of June 30, a party in the parking lot and breezeway of the apartment complex was still in high gear. Kenny Richey had been drinking heavily when Cynthia Collins’ mother, Hope, asked him to baby-sit her daughter while she left with her boyfriend. Richey agreed, and the prosecution claimed that as Collins drove away, it seemed as though Richey was walking in the direction of her apartment.

But, according to Prosecutor Basinger’s theory, instead of babysitting, Richey fell into a jealous rage over the fact that his former girlfriend, Candy Barchet, was in bed sleeping with her new boyfriend. It just so happened that Barchet’s first floor apartment was directly underneath the Collins apartment.

The court heard testimony that Richey broke into a nearby commercial greenhouse and stole a bottle of gasoline as well as a container of paint thinner. Returning to the apartment complex unnoticed, Richey quietly climbed to the top of a shed from which he jumped on to Hope Collins’ balcony and broke into her apartment with the cans of accelerants in hand.

Basinger further alleged that Richey disconnected Collins’ smoke detector, splattered the carpet with accelerants, and set fire to the apartment in an act of revenge against his former girlfriend who slept downstairs.

Later, as firefighters carried the tiny body of Cynthia Collins out of the inferno, the prosecution claimed that Richey was overheard boasting, “I did a good job, didn’t I?”

During the trial, experts testified for the prosecution that forensic tests performed on the carpets in the Collins apartment revealed traces of gasoline and paint thinner. The issue of the disconnected smoke detector in Hope Collins’ hallway was a major blow to Richey’s defense, as the prosecution claimed it proved Richey planned to start the fire. Also, three witnesses testified that Richey bragged about starting the blaze.

Prosecutor Basinger enjoyed an easy, and much celebrated win, and Kenny Richey was sentenced to a death in what many supporters of capital punishment have nicknamed “Old Sparky,” Ohio’s electric chair. Months later, voters gave Prosecutor Basinger his desired position of judge.

Unfortunately for Judge Basinger, however, this is a case that will not go away. Years later many questions are still unanswered, and as Richey sits on death row in the Mansfield Correctional Institution in Ohio, his case is gaining worldwide attention.

Richey concedes that he was drinking heavily at the party. But he swears he never agreed to baby-sit Hope Collins’ daughter. And two witnesses, Collins’ boyfriend and a friend who sat in a nearby parked truck, both deny hearing Collins ask Richey to watch her child.

A third witness observed the entire scene from behind her bedroom window. Although this witness heard nothing but the roar of the truck’s engine, she observed Hope Collins climbing into the truck and then saw an intoxicated Richey collapse into a row of bushes, where he lay for about 10 minutes.

Richey admits that he fell into the bushes. But he claims he pulled himself up, stumbled home, and passed out.

Another major matter in the case that leads some to question Richey’s conviction is the behavior of the mother, Hope Collins. Upon returning from a night of partying, Collins was met with the grisly news of her child’s death. However, she did not make a single comment or ask police of the whereabouts of any babysitter until after she was faced with a harsh sentence for neglecting her child.

Hope Collins had a history of leaving her daughter alone. Just hours prior to the fatal fire, she left two-year-old Cynthia alone while she shot pool with friends. Investigations by the Department of Human Services also prove that Hope’s parenting was less than consistent.

The important fact that Richey had a hand in a cast at the time of the fire was left out of the prosecution’s argument when they claimed he climbed to the roof of a shed with two cans of accelerants. Add this to the fact that the roof of the shed was extremely steep, and the distance from the roof to Collins’ balcony was five feet.

This would be a challenge for any person, but for someone who is extremely intoxicated with only one available hand, the feat may seem quite impossible.

A major blow to Richey’s case was the fact that his defense attorney failed to bring to the court’s attention the fact that Hope Collins often disconnected her smoke detector when she smoked pot in the apartment. Hope admitted to smoking pot in her apartment the night of the fire, but this was not pursued by Richey’s defense.

Also missing from the trial was the fact that upon inspection of the apartment after the fire, officials ruled it an accident, with no evidence of arson, and reported that the building was immediately gutted. The carpet that was to be later used against Richey was sent to the local dump, only to be retrieved later and stored next to a gas pump outside the local sheriff’s office. It was only after this neglectful storage that law enforcement discovered traces of accelerants on the carpet.

Most of the testimony by the prosecution’s fire experts was based upon the carpet that had been improperly handled by police and photographs of the fire scene. Very little evidence came from actual inspection of the burned apartment.

Richey’s trial was a sad commentary on the justice system in America. His trial attorney was less than competent, and two of the three witnesses who claimed to have heard Richey confess now state that they were coerced by the prosecution, and have recanted their stories.

Richey’s trial never went before a jury of his peers. Instead, his attorney allowed it to be tried in front of a three-judge panel. And throughout most of the trial, the unqualified defense sat in silence as the prosecution buried the defendant.

Richey’s attorney mistakenly hired a fire expert who specialized in metal fatigue, not fire. This defense witness’ experience in fire investigation was limited to four days training with the very department that was claiming the fire was arson. He never challenged their report, or carried out his own examination. And, to cap it all, this potentially vital defense witness ended up giving evidence for the prosecution.

The fact that Amnesty International has stated, “Kenny has one of the most compelling cases of innocence human rights campaigners have ever seen” is not surprising when one discovers the most important bit of information withheld from the court. In the weeks preceding her death, two-year-old Cynthia Collins had started at least three separate fires that were documented by the local fire department. The child loved to play with matches and burning cigarettes.

Since Richey’s sentencing, three different experts have agreed that the evidence of arson that was used to convict Kenny was false.

In April of this year, Richey won a victory when the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals sent his case back for review to Ohio’s Supreme Court. The judges suggested that certain evidence may point to Richey’s innocence, and if so, he should be re-tried or released. However, the Ohio Supreme Court refused to consider the appeal, and it sent the case back to the federal court.

Kenny Richey is now awaiting a decision from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which may be his last hope unless the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear his case.

Richey’s defense team now has one month from June 9 to submit a new appeal to the federal court. His current lawyer recently expressed his concern when he stated, “It’s incredibly troubling. This means Kenny is back before the Sixth Circuit and if he loses there, he is almost certainly going to lose in the U.S. Supreme Court.”

The defense team says they have met British Foreign Office officials and that, “we desperately need them to intervene and intervene now. If they don’t do it in the next 30 days, there’s every chance that Kenny will die.”

In a recent interview in the Daily Mail of Scotland, Richey said, “Death is not scary to me now. There is life after death; this is just a stopping over. I’m not scared of dying. I used to be when I was a kid; it used to terrify the hell out of me. Not any more.

“I’ve spent 17 years thinking about it. I’ve faced the reality. I’ve had 13 execution dates. Nine years ago, I came within an hour of going to the electric chair. My head was shaved and I’d said a final goodbye to my mum and family, and then a stay came through.

“People wonder how it feels to come that close to death. It was nerve-wracking but at the same time, I felt at peace, nothing was going through my mind.”

He then added, “I’m going to make these people admit they were wrong. They did me wrong, they did my family wrong and I’m not going to let them get away with it. Come Hell or high water, they will suffer the consequences of their actions.”

Justice for Kenny Richey is an urgent matter. We cannot allow the very lives of our working-class brothers and sisters to be used as cheap modes of advancement for the careers of the ruling rich. It is imperative that activists send the message to the courts and to the capitalist politicians that we will not stand by and allow them to execute Kenny Richey or any other members of the working class.

As Richey’s wife stated, “Everybody is told the only people on death row are the worst of the worst, and I’ve found that’s the biggest lie ever told. The people on death row are poor people, people that have had crap lawyers. ... You know, you’ll never get a rich man on death row. Money talks, rich man walks.”

This article first appeared in the July 2004 issue of Socialist Action newspaper.