Straw rang to request reprieve for British man on Death Row

The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, intervened yesterday in the case of a British murderer on Death Row, Tracy Housel, when he rang the Governor of Georgia and requested a reprieve.

Mr Straw telephoned Governor Ray Barnes and asked that he commute Housel's sentence to life imprisonment. But Mr Straw was informed that, unlike in many US states, the governor does not have the right to intervene. The only body that can now halt the execution is the state's Pardons and Parole Board, to which Mr Straw has already written.

The death warrant for Housel, 43, who has been on Death Row for 16 years, was signed yesterday by a Georgia judge and the date for his execution by lethal injection was fixed for 12 March. This followed a decision by the US Supreme Court on Monday not to hear a final appeal.

Housel claims British citizenship because he was born in Bermuda, a dependent territory of the UK, where he lived until he was three. He was convicted of going on a crime spree which included the rape and murder of a man in Texas and the fatal strangling of a woman in Georgia.

Gwinnett County's district attorney, Danny Porter, was unmoved by Mr Straw's intervention. He said: "Housel is no more English than I am. To me, it's a very legalistic ploy to involve another government to manipulate the judicial system of Georgia."

Housel's lawyers claim he did not receive a fair trial. He was represented at his trial by a single, court-appointed lawyer just out of law school, who advised him to plead guilty even though there was the possibility of arguing a defence.

Lawyers say the jury never learnt that Housel was brain-damaged and was suffering from psychosis.