Death Row Scot arrives home

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) -- A Scotsman who came within an hour of being executed in Ohio returned to Edinburgh on Wednesday after his release from more than 20 years on death row.

Ken Richey, who walked free under a plea deal Monday, appeared bewildered as he edged toward media microphones in the airport's arrival hall.

"It feels great," said Richey, who was 18 when he was last in Scotland. "I am glad to be back. I want to thank everyone who has supported me over the years."

As part of a plea deal, Richey, 43, agreed to leave the United States as soon as possible because prosecutors were worried about threats against him, his family and attorney said.

But his flight from Chicago to London was canceled Tuesday because of bad weather. He arrived in Edinburgh on Wednesday night via Frankfurt, Germany.

Richey pleaded no contest to attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangering, and breaking and entering related to a 1986 fire that killed 2-year-old Cynthia Collins.

Under the terms of his deal, Richey made no admission that he had anything to do with causing the fire and was sentenced to the 21 years he had already served.

He clenched his fist for photographers then posed with the Lion Rampant Scottish flag as he left the airport terminal to the cheers of supporters.

He was accompanied by his brother, Steven, and representatives from two British tabloid newspapers, which have reportedly offered to jointly pay him between $60,000 to $100,000 for his story.

Richey planned to stay in Edinburgh with his mother, who he has not seen in more than two decades.

He is free to return to the U.S. because he is also a citizen there through his American father, but he must stay out of the county where the death occurred for five years.

Prosecutors approved the deal with him after a federal appeals court determined Richey's lawyers mishandled the case. The court overturned Richey's conviction and death sentence last year.

Richey had been convicted of charges accusing him of setting a fire at the Columbus Grove apartment complex in June 1986 to get even with his former girlfriend, who lived in the same building as the child who died.

Richey's new defense team argued that investigators mishandled evidence used to convict him and that experts used unscientific methods to determine that gas or turpentine started the fire.

Richey has maintained he did not start the fire, but acknowledged he was intoxicated that night and did not remember everything that happened. He agreed to plead no contest to charges accusing him of leaving the toddler in harm's way by failing to baby-sit the child after telling her mother that he would.

He came close to being executed in Ohio's electric chair in 1994. He had said his goodbyes and his head was shaved before a late stay came from an appeals court.

Richey's name is a familiar one in Britain, where there is no death penalty. He has drawn support from members of the British Parliament and the late Pope John Paul II.

A reporter asked Richey what he thought of the U.S. justice system before he was bundled into a silver station wagon waiting to whisk him to a secret location chosen by his tabloid handlers. "It sucks," he answered.

Source: CNN.com