Prisoners Abroad
I caught the river taxi and made the forty minute journey to the prison in Nonthaburi. The British Embassy had arranged for me to visit our client in the more private diplomatic visiting area, although bars and wire mesh still separated us. Our client looked surprisingly well, although he was having trouble keeping cool in the Bangkok summer smog. We discussed the possibility of his transferring to a UK prison while he waited for the Thai king to consider his clemency plea, which will now probably succeed with British government support. Our client also told me how he has to clean his teeth and wash in a trough of untreated city river water with thirty other inmates; how he waits months to see doctors, despite his past stroke, his heart condition and chronic asthma and about his diet of unmilled rice and fish head soup.
I had an appointment with the Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy the next day. I wanted to hear what was being done. He explained that, in the light of the policy change, a thorough review of our client's case had taken place and that the Embassy was now pushing for the Thais to release our client.
Christian Tuddenham, Litigation Lawyer
Kenny Richey "A compelling claim of innocence" Amnesty International
In June 2004, lawyers in our Chicago office worked with leading human rights barristers Mungo Bovey QC (Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh) and Hugh Southey (Tooks Court Chambers, London) to submit an amicus brief to the US Sixth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals on behalf of over 200 Westminster and Scottish Members of Parliament, as well as the Law Society of England and Wales and the Bar Human Rights Committee, outlining the significant international law issues which arise in the case of Kenny Richey.
We have also worked with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to secure British Government support for the case. In August 2004, the UK Government intervened by submitting an amicus brief in support of the representations made by our client. We believe this is only the second time such a proactive step has been taken by the Government in a death penalty case.
Kenny Richey has been on death row for 17 years. There are significant doubts about the safety of his conviction. We now await the decision of the court.