As a gainfully employed single man, these stories about women hooking up with death row murderers make me think that my attempts at internet dating have been a big waste. Perhaps I should whack a couple of guys and then I could meet the girl of my dreams. While I ponder that, enjoy this story of the Scottish Lass and her fiancee...

Some of the highlights from the article in the Mirror...

THE MAN I'LL MARRY IS FACING EXECUTION

By David Edwards

KAREN Torley shook uncontrollably as the prison door slammed shut behind her.

Sitting in the booth next to her, a man wept openly as he begged his son not to give up hope.

To her left, a woman told her brother how the lawyers were doing everything to get him off Death Row.

But Karen had travelled from Glasgow not to comfort a son or brother but to meet her fiance, convicted murderer Kenny Richey, for the first time.

"All I wanted to do was run away because the place was so very, very intimidating," says Karen, 40.

"I kept thinking: 'Why am I here? I've accepted a marriage proposal from a man I've never met before who's been on Death Row for the past 11 years.'"

But before she could leave, inmate A194764 was led into the room. Cuffed, shackled and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, he sat down in front of her behind the inch-thick glass screen and picked up the phone to speak.

Karen says: "One of the first things he said was: 'Do you think I'm someone you would like to spend the rest of your life with? Because I want to spend my life with you', and I just said: 'Yes.'

"It sounds strange but we just clicked, it was like we'd known each other for ever."

Kenny, who grew up in Scotland, has been on Death Row in Ohio since 1987, when he was convicted of murdering a two-year-old in an arson attack on his ex-girlfriend's home. He is due to be killed by lethal injection. It could happen within months and now Karen is stepping up her campaign to have him freed.

Karen had just separated from Frank, her husband of 15 years, when she became interested in Kenny's plight in 1995.

"I'd seen him a few years before on TV saying he was innocent and I just thought: 'Yeah, they all say that', but I thought I'd write to him," she says.

"I just wanted to be a friend to someone who was going to die anyway. Then I started reading up on him and couldn't believe how unjust his conviction was."

Karen says: "I wrote to him and told him a little bit about me and soon we were writing back and forth. I'd be telling him about my life, like how I failed my driving test and what kind of music I liked.

"What he really liked were just everyday pictures of things, like my car. He also liked till receipts, to see how much everything cost - just bits and pieces to remind him of home.

Follow the link for more of this inspirational tale of a love that will not be denied. Death of a 2-year old notwithstanding.