Briton executed by lethal injection despite Blair plea

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interview:'I am truly sorry for the anguish and hurt I caused'

In the end, nothing could save Tracy Housel from execution – not his lawyers, not the intervention of Tony Blair, not his British citizenship.

The convicted killer who claimed citizenship as a result of having been born in Bermuda, was executed by lethal injection last night at a prison in Jackson, 50 miles south of Atlanta, Georgia.

A spokesman for the Georgia Department of Correction said Housel's execution started at 7.17pm when the first of the three drugs was administered by an intravenous drip. He was declared dead 11 minutes later.

In a short statement before the execution, Housel apologised to the family of his victim and read two short readings from the Bible. "He went very quietly," the spokesman said. "He was very quiet, very nervous but very much seemed to be resigned to his fate."

Mr Blair had made a last-minute appeal for the sentence be commuted.

Housel, 43, was convicted in 1986 of embarking on a month-long crime spree which culminated in the rape and murder of a Georgia woman, Jeanne Drew. His legal team argued he was suffering from a severe form of hypoglycaemia and was unable to control his behaviour.