Delphi double murderer Richard Allen now blames psychosis for his confessions to killing young girls

Delphi murderer Richard Allen is appealing his 130-year sentence for killing two Indiana middle school girls — blaming psychosis from solitary confinement for his repeated confessions to his wife.Allen, 54, was found guilty in 2024 of murdering eighth graders Abigail Williams and Liberty German — who were just 13 and 14 when their bodies were found in 2017 with their throats slit near a hiking trail in Delphi, Indiana. Allen repeatedly confessed to prison guards and psychologists, as well as several times to his wife, Kathy, in person, phone calls and letters.“I did it.I killed Abby and Libby,” Allen stated frankly in one of many phone conversations with his wife played for the jury during his four-week trial.“Yes, I did,” he assured her when she tried to challenge his confession.Allen’s attorneys are now seeking to overturn his conviction, arguing that he only confessed because he became severely mentally ill while locked in solitary confinement — where he smashed his head against cell walls, bathed in his toilet, ate paper, and covered his face and cell walls in feces, Fox 59 reported.His appellate attorney, Mark Leeman, argued in court Monday that the judge should never have allowed the confessions to be admitted as evidence.“We want to make sure we got it right,” he told the court.“We do not have a reliable verdict,” he said, adding that he didn’t believe Allen, who had no criminal history, could have committed such a horrific crime.Prosecutor Ellen Meilaender with the Indiana Attorney General’s Office stressed that Allen’s confessions were voluntary and not forced, and not part of his interrogations.Meilaender also stressed that Allen was only in solitary confinement for his own safety.There, Allen also had a tablet — which was replaced when he broke it — and met with a chaplain and mental health professionals.The conviction also did not solely rest on his confessions, with Allen having admitted in 2017 — years before his a...