Pope John Paul II, Tony Blair, Susan Sarandon, have appealed for the life of Ken Richey

Please email the Governor of Ohio:

http://apps.das.ohio.gov/govpublic/contact.aspx

or call him
http://ohio.gov



Tony Blair, Susan Sarandon, Pope John Paul 2nd have defended Ken
Richey, a man who has been in jail 20 years, convicted
in the accidental death of a 2 year old girl in reputed arson.
He has had 13 execution dates come and go. Once his
execution date was a day away.

2 of the 3 who testified against Richey have since recanted.

Originally prosecutor Randall Basinger, now reputedly a judge, asked
the death penalty
while Kenny Richey had only an overworked public defender, William
Kluge, who had handled only 3 or 4 death penalty cases.

Kenny's current attorney is Boston probono lawyer Ken Parsigian, who said
it was a mistake for Kluge to ask for a 3 judge panel, since
only 1 of 12 must say someone is not guilty, an easier task
than judges.

There were no accelerants found on Richey's clothing, nor
was there any source for the accelerants.

Parsigian said there was no arson. The Ohio crime lab,
said Parsigian, was the equivalent of voodoo, with no crime
evidence. Flashover fires can start accidentally and have
the same pour patterns as arson, can be rapidly burning fires.

The fan was originally thought to be a cause.
There was a marijuana pipe in the apartment.
The little girl had started 2 fires the fire department had
had to put out, 1 in a bed, 1 in a sofa.

The prosecution's 3 witnesses had all been drinking heavily.

n January 2005 the case was reversed by the 6th Circuit. They also
turned down a bid for rehearing from the Attorney Generals office. In
late may the clock started ticking, Ohio had 90 days to set up a
retrial, else Kenny would be free... Petro, unwilling to accept the
retrial, appealed to the US Supreme Court. Most of us, the absolute
majority, felt it truly unlikely they would even hear the appeal.
While waiting the clock stopped ticking, and yet another delay was
introduced in this case of two decades.
Unpleasant surprise from the USSC

Surprisingly the US Supreme Court not only accepted to hear the appeal
but threw out the 6th Circuit decision. They did so mainly because of
the transferral of intent part, but sent back the other half of the
decision for further review by the 6th Circuit. Basically the part of
ineffective counsel, was remanded back to the 6th - the question being
whether the State had waived complaints that new evidence were taken
into consideration. See the Supreme Court Opinion
The future

The case is still very much alive. Parsigian, Kenny's attorney have
vowed to fight on, and very likely the next stop is the 6th Circuit
court of appeals yet again. It is early to make any definite
predictions, but at least this is the court that took a fresh look on
the case in the first place. Here is the new appeal to the 6th
Circuit, and again on the 17th July 2006 Kenny's attorneys filed with
the 6th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals - taking apart the States
attempts to widen the scope of the remand.




People who are eligible to be jurors in Kenny's retrial have been very
vocal in their opinions on the Lima News forum.

Read for yourself why Kenny Richey's trial should be moved to another
venue. These are just a taster.

"As for the Innocent until proven guilty crowd.....That only applies
in the Court of Law,not the court of public opinion." posted by
Elephantman






http://j12.org/ps/richey.htm


http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/KennyRicheyRetrial/



http://www.kennyrichey.org


http://www.prejean.org


http://www.amnesty.org


There is no physical evidence linking Richey to the arson
whcih caused the death of a 2 year old.
Canadian, Mexican and German nationals denied their
right to contact their own consulates were state murdered by
Texas Republican appointed officals during the Bush governorship.

God open the prison doors and release all in the world whom
You know to deserve freedom.

Update: susan Collins, the mother of the victim,
pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received 45 days.
Posted by sb11 on 09-20-2007 09:07 AM:


http://ohio.gov

Governor Strickland is a former pastor. Please remind
him that Jesus in John 8:7
prevented an execution in progress.


Governor's Office
Lt. Governor's Office
First Lady's Office

Governor's Office

Mail:
Governor's Office
Riffe Center, 30th Floor
77 South High Street
Columbus, OH 43215-6108

Phone/Fax:
General Info: (614) 466-3555
Fax: (614) 466-9354

Online:


Via phone, you can reach us at the constituent helpline: (614) 644-4357





Botched Execution Angers Ohio Abolitionists
by Sharon Danann Sunday, Jun. 10, 2007 at 8:15 PM
cleveland.indymedia.org


On May 24, Ohio set a new record for the length of time taken to
execute a prisoner. The medical technicians worked for 90 minutes to
put shunts into the veins of Christopher Newton, so long he had to be
allowed to get off the execution table to have a bathroom break.
During this time activists barraged the office of Ohio Gov. Ted
Strickland with phone calls, threatening to alert the media.

Once the injection of lethal chemicals began, it took an additional 16
minutes for Newton to die, compared to an average of 7.5 minutes.
According to the Associated Press report, his stomach contorted, his
chin shook and his body had two mild convulsions. This indicates that
the deadly "cocktail" was not performing as expected.

Prison officials blamed Newton's weight for the difficulty in finding
veins. Newton was 6 feet tall and weighed 265 pounds.

Kathy Soltis of the Cleveland Coalition Against the Death Penalty and
the Cleveland Lucasville Five Defense Committee, made the following
comment: "The sentence, to which we object in absolute terms, is
death, not death preceded by torture. Being stuck repeatedly with
needles is not part of the deal."

A year ago, the botched execution of Joseph Clark took more than 80
minutes, much of the delay also caused by difficulties in finding a
vein. Clark begged to be killed in some other way. The prison system
promised to make procedural changes to prevent a recurrence.

Following Clark's traumatic execution, a group of prisoners filed a
class action lawsuit challenging the lethal injection method. The
courts have allowed executions of inmates who are plaintiffs in this suit.

The ACLU of Ohio called for an immediate end to all executions in
light of two botched executions a year apart. Gov. Strickland stated
that the May 24 debacle "is not a justification for a change of
position regarding the death penalty in Ohio." He is also "personally
satisfied that everything was done" to show consideration for Newton.

The Cleveland Lucasville Five Defense Committee has been active in the
movement to bring the broad opposition to the death penalty to Gov.
Strickland's attention, including the use of a postcard campaign
circulated through its prisoner network.

To contact Gov. Strickland on this issue, people can write to him at
77 South High Street, Columbus, OH 43215, fax 614-466-9354, or call
614-466-3555. For Web mail, go to governor.ohio.gov, click on
"Constituent Affairs," and then click on "Contact the Governor."
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