'On Death Row' (Five Live Rep), The Guardian

Monday, October 14, 2002

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Radio review - Life before death. From The Guardian. BY Elisabelth Mahoney

Sometimes, in its quest to do in-depth news stories with an accessible edge, the Five Live Report feels too much like sensation and too little like substance. Every now and then, though, a cracking programme is made; half an hour of radio that might get the audience thinking about some thorny issues without it feeling like hard work.

Yesterday's Five Live Report - On Death Row was one of those. Featuring an exclusive interview with Kenny Richey, a Scot who has been on Death Row in Ohio for 17 years, the thing that distinguished the programme was that it made such uncomfortable listening. The only thing we could probably all agree upon after hearing the programme was that nobody should spend most of their life - he went to prison at 21 and is now 38 - waiting for state-administered death.

There were audible bristles of fear and loathing as presenter James Silver was transported to Richey through steel doors etched with "Death Row". He met the unlovely convicted murderer ("it becomes clear that Richey is not an easy bloke to deal with") and his more sympathetic father ("for the past 16 years, I haven't been able to touch him"). If we were expecting a broken man, perhaps newly turned to God, we didn't get it.

Though there is compelling evidence that Richey's lawyer failed him at trial by not revealing key facts, he hardly helps himself. Before the trial he made death threats to the prosecutor ("and I meant it") and during the bumpy, unfriendly interview he reiterated his venom: "I'd like to put my hands around his neck and strangle 17 years out of his ass".

(The Guardian, October 14th 2002)

Posted by James Silver - On Monday, October 14, 2002

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