18-year Ordeal of Briton on Death Row

Kenny Richey will wake up in his Ohio jail cell this morning wondering if he is going to die. It is almost a year since federal appeal court judges retired to consider the evidence which Richey's supporters say proves his innocence. Hours drag in the waiting game.

"I wish they would hurry up and come to a decision," he told the Guardian from death row at Mansfield correctional institution. "It is really tiring not knowing what is going to happen and it gets you down. But I know that I am innocent and I'm prepared to die for what I believe in."

The case of Richey, a Scot, is described by Amnesty International as "the most compelling case of innocence on death row". More than 100 MPs are backing his appeal. Last week, members of the Scottish parliament called for Tony Blair to intervene personally with US authorities. Last month, Chris Mullin, the junior foreign office minister, said the government was doing all it could to prevent his execution.

The Scot, though, will not allow himself to be hopeful.

"He's been in there for 18 years and he doesn't do optimism," says his fiancee, Karen Torley. "Even the prosecution admits our evidence is better than theirs, but the American constitution means you can still be executed if you had a fair trial even though the evidence proves Kenny is innocent. When he's down he'll say, 'I know they are going to kill me.'"

Richey was born and raised in Edinburgh; his voice retains a deep Scottish burr. When his parents divorced in 1992 he moved to the US with his American father, Jim. Four years later, aged 21, he was arrested for arson and the murder of two-year-old Cynthia Collins. It was June 1986, one week before he was due to return home to Scotland.

The case against Richey is simple: in a jealous rage, he is alleged to have set fire to an apartment block where his former girlfriend, Candy Barchet, was sleeping with her new lover. But the evidence, say his supporters and the Boston-based lawyer Kenneth Parsigian, point to a far more mundane scenario.

On the night Cynthia Collins died, Richey had been to a party. His ex-girlfriend was also there. Ms Barchet and her new lover left the party a little while before Richey. According to the prosecution, Richey later followed her back to her home in Columbus Grove.

Richey, who had a broken hand in a cast and sling at the time and was blind drunk, is alleged to have broken into a greenhouse and stolen some paint stripper or petrol. He is then alleged to have scaled a steep shed, broken into the flat above Ms Barchet's, where Cynthia Collins was home alone, disabled the smoke alarm and set fire to a carpet - all in an attempt to target Ms Barchet.

"Sure, it's real believable," says his father Jim, his voice heavy with sarcasm.

At his trial, Richey was represented by a young and inexperienced lawyer, William Kluge. Mr Parsigian says Mr Kluge made some fundamental errors. Rather than opting for a jury trial, where the doubt of just one member would have saved Richey from the chair, he accepted a trial in front of a panel of judges.

Mr Kluge also employed an expert in metal fatigue who had only four days' training in arson investigation to counter the arson claims.

But Richey now has two suitable expert witnesses: Dick Custer and Tony Café. Both men, world authorities in fire investigation, say no accelerants were used in the fire. They say Cynthia Collins died in a furniture fire, most likely caused by a match or cigarette.

Cynthia had previously started two fires. Witnesses told Mr Kluge she was fascinated with matches. He did not bring this up at the trial. Another witness told him Cynthia's mother regularly turned off the smoke alarm in her flat because it went off during cooking. Again, Mr Kluge chose not to bring the witness to the courtroom.

The only other evidence against Richey is the testimony of witnesses who told his original trial they heard him saying he was "going to burn down the building". One admits she did not directly hear Richey say these words; it was just gossip. Another says she said what she thought the prosecution wanted her to say.

At his trial, Richey was offered a plea bargain of 11 years. Mr Parsigian says this shows the prosecution thought they had little chance of success. In the case of a murdered toddler, the plea bargain is generally life in prison with no parole.

Richey, who was once merely hours away from execution, could have been home in Scotland long ago if he had admitted guilt. But he refuses. He is too stubborn and proud and he will not admit to something he didn't do, he says. He spends 23 hours a day alone in a tiny cell and says he will die if he has to.

"This is really his last chance and we thought we would have a decision in six months at the outset, but it is now almost a year," says Ms Torley. "If it's successful, Kenny says he wants to come back and live in the Highlands. If it's not, well ... how can they even think of executing a man based on that evidence? And he'll let them, the stubborn bastard."