Cases: Tracy Housel (USA)
Tracy Housel, 43, was executed in 2002. He had joint US-UK citizenship because he was born in Bermuda when it was a British territory.
Tracy was accused of battering to death Jeanne Drew in the county of Gwinnett, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. She had last been seen on 6 April 1985 driving off in her car with Tracy Housel in the passenger seat. The next day her body was found by the side of a road. Tracy was arrested in Florida where he had a confession beaten out of him and then was extradited to Georgia. Tracy pleaded guilty to the murder.
He had grown up in poverty in Wakefield, Rhode Island where his childhood was marred by violence, including the beatings that his father regularly administered. His mother was an alcoholic and had sex with men in the front seat of the car while (as a young child) Tracy was forced to sit and watch from the back seat. He was in the US military for a short period of time and was honourably discharged.
The murder apparently occurred during a psychotic episode in part triggered by a rare and extreme form of hypoglycaemia. The jury did not hear about this condition.
Reprieve was instrumental in persuading the UK Government to intervene on Tracy's behalf. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw phoned Georgia’s governor to ask that Housel be spared. 127 MPs signed a motion protesting that Housel's trial was unfair. But the Prime Minister fell short of making a direct intervention and did not appeal to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles. British MP Vera Baird testified at the clemency hearing as did Sister Helen Prejean. However, Tracy was was executed by lethal injection on 12 March 2002, at the age of 43
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