Brit who has spent two decades on death row is freed after missing execution by an hour

Ken Richey, who once came within an hour of being executed, walked free for the first time since he was convicted of setting a northwest Ohio apartment fire that killed the toddler in 1986.

Prosecutors approved the deal after an appeals court overturned Richey's conviction and death sentence last year.

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The deal let Richey, a U.S.-British citizen, go home to Scotland without admitting that he had anything to do with the fire.

Richey pleaded no contest to attempted involuntary manslaughter, child endangering and breaking and entering. His hands were cuffed in front of him during the half-hour hearing in Putnam County Common Pleas Court.

A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but a statement that no defense will be offered, leaving the defendant subject to being judged guilty and punished.

Richey's case has generated limited interest in Ohio, but his name is a familiar one in Britain.

He drew support from members of the British Parliament and the late Pope John Paul II.

As part of the deal, Richey, 43, agreed to exit the country within a day, and plans to leave for Scotland on Tuesday. Prosecutors told him they were worried about threats against Richey, his family and attorney said.

He will be free, though, to return to the United States, because he is a citizen.

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Richey had been set to get out three weeks ago until a trip to the hospital for chest pains delayed his release. He has been in a county jail in Ottawa since then.

He was convicted of setting a fire that killed 2-year-old Cynthia Collins and stayed on death row until a federal appeals court determined in August that his lawyers mishandled his case.

The court overturned his conviction and sentence, saying expert testimony could have contended that the fire was an accident and not intentionally set.

Richey was sent to county jail after the decision, and the state was set to try him again in March and seek another death sentence.

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Instead, Richey pleaded no contest to the state's charges accusing him of telling the toddler's mother he would baby-sit the girl, but failing to do so and leaving her in harm's way.

"The situation surrounding the death of my little girl has haunted me for 21 years," the girl's father, Robert Collins, said in a written statement read by a victim advocate to the judge.

"The unthinkable reality of her choking, crawling, crying, and her little lungs filling with smoke has been etched in my mind since her death. It's an ongoing nightmare. I will never have closure now that the outcome has changed."

Members of Richey's family declined comment after the hearing.

Richey plans to spend his first night of freedom playing video games and watching movies - Superman III, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and Transformers - said his brother, Steve.

He will leave for Scotland on Tuesday and stay with his mother in Edinburgh.

He has said he might live on a farm, travel around Scotland, or maybe open his own nightclub. "I don't know what I'm going to do," he said.

He also wants to write a book and speak out against the death penalty.

"That's something I've got to do," he said. "There's still a lot of innocent people on death row that don't have a voice."