When threatened with arrest for neglecting her child, Hope Collins claimed she had left Cynthia in the care of Kenny, a friend of hers. He was one of several people who attended a party that evening on the breezeway between Hope and her neighbour's flat. Hope claimed she asked Kenny to watch her child moments before she climbed into her boyfriend's truck.
Richey maintains he never agreed to anything of the sort: he was too drunk from the party to look after a child. Two witnesses were present: Hope's boyfriend and another man, who both denied hearing her make this request.
There was a third witness, a female resident of the building, who observed Hope getting into the vehicle and an obviously drunk Kenny stumbling from the pavement and collapsing into some bushes. He lay there for about 10 minutes before lurching to his feet and staggering from her view. She was the last person to see Kenny, who headed down to his father's house and crashed out.
After the blaze, the local fire chief arrived to inspect the flat, followed by the state fire marshall. They saw no evidence of foul play, authorising the building owner to gut the apartment. Obviously, had arson been suspected, the flat would have been secured and preserved for further investigation and the gathering of evidence.
It was an election year in 1986 and the local prosecutor, Randall Basinger, was one of several candidates who hoped to be elected to fill the vacant county judge's office in Putnam. It was in Basinger's interest to build a headlining case to promote his name in the local newspaper, and he took personal charge of this one.
Incredibly, Kenny Richey became the number one suspect, and was charged with breaking and entering, child endangerment, aggravated murder and arson. At the outset he stated his innocence and demanded to be permitted to take a lie detector test, a request that was refused.
Basinger then demanded the death penalty, which instantly gained front-page attention; it was the first capital punishment case in Putnam County since the 1800s, when the theft of a pig resulted in a hanging. The case dominated the local news for months, generating publicity for Basinger as election day approached. It was no surprise when he was elected judge.
But the prosecution's case stretches credibility. Richey's condition that night was well observed, but it claimed that rather than going home to sleep, he broke into a greenhouse and stole cans of petrol and paint thinner. Then it was alleged that he climbed on to a utility shed, gained access to Hope's balcony and her living room, and doused it in petrol and set it alight before escaping back over the parapet with the empty cans.
The motive was supposedly that Kenny's old girlfriend, who lived downstairs from Hope, was sleeping with her new boyfriend and that a pathologically jealous Richey wanted to do them in.
However, the greenhouse owner said no cans of petrol were missing from his place and none was ever found near or around the apartments. As well as being hopelessly drunk, Kenny had a broken hand. Could he have silently climbed up an angled roof carrying a five-gallon petrol container and a tin of paint thinner, and leapt across a 5ft space?
Furthermore, the night was hot and humid, with Kenny's ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend's open bedroom window only 5ft from the shed. Both testified to being light sleepers, but said they heard nothing.
If Kenny wanted to harm his ex-girlfriend, he could have thrown a bottle of petrol with a burning wick through her window. Additionally, forensics found no trace of flammables on his clothes.
Basinger offered him a plea bargain of 11 years in exchange for pleading guilty to lesser charges. Kenny refused, maintaining his innocence. Unfortunately, his defence lawyer advised him to accept a three-judge rather than a jury trial. The prosecution's case included scientific testimony that was subsequently discredited, and several witnesses have since claimed they were coerced into making false statements.
A fair judicial system should not be condemning an innocent man to death. Nothing good is served by the tolerance of such a blatant miscarriage of justice. Clearly somebody should be on trial here, but it shouldn't be Kenny Richey.
Richey is an ex-soldier. In another time he might have been part of Britain's Gulf forces praised recently by politicians on both sides of the Atlantic. Our kudos is currently high in America.
It's time our Foreign Office used some of it to put an end to this nightmare for Richey and his family, and got him back to Edinburgh. They'll need to move quickly: an innocent Briton in America will soon be murdered.

Latest news - The State now have 90 days to either give Kenny a re-trial or let him go. Let's all hope all goes well for him.