Legal Case
Tracy is on Death Row in Georgia. He was convicted of the death of a woman he is alleged to have picked up from a truck stop. In 1985 he was sentenced to death by electrocution.
This was the only crime with which he was charged. However, the jury, which had to decide if he should live or die, heard details of other alleged offences, although his guilt had not been established.
Earlier, detectives had repeatedly interrogated him about them as he awaited trial in the Gwinnett County jail. After seeking advice from the FBI, they decided to hold these interviews at night. In the jail, he was held in solitary confinement, denied showers and exercise for more than three months, and 'punished' with an electric stun gun, at least once - according to evidence from his fellow prisoners - while standing in water, in order to intensify the pain.
Tracy's trial lawyer, was recently qualified, and had never handled a murder case. In later appeal hearings, he admitted he made no attempt to ascertain the facts of Tracy's abusive background, nor his medical state. As a child Tracy sustained severe head injuries and has a medical condition that leaves him prone to black outs.
In advising him to plead guilty, he had deprived him of a possible defence of insanity; had he known the full facts, Brit said, he would never have given such advice.
Tracy's Appeal
There were two main grounds to Tracy's recent unsuccessful appeal to the 11th Federal Circuit Court: that he had been deprived of his constitutional right to effective legal counsel; and that, by adducing evidence of crimes which were unproved, the prosecution deprived him of a fair hearing over whether he should get life or death, rendering his execution a cruel and unusual punishment.
On 18 January the three appeal judges, led by a keen advocate of the death penalty, rejected all Tracy's arguments. He should go to the electric chair. Although Tracy has a final recourse to the US Supreme Court, it is extremely rare for this court to prevent an execution.
Documents from the appeal:
Support from the British Government
The British Foreign Office became involved in the case upon learning of Tracey's British nationality in January 2001.
Lawyers acting for Tracy say the tougher stance adopted by the British Government represents an important step forward. Until now the Foreign Office has refused to intervene in American death penalty cases until all judicial avenues have been exhausted.
Tracy's lawyers, Hugh Southey, a barrister at Michael Mansfield's chambers in London, and Yasmine Waljee, a solicitor at the London City law firm Lovells, have had urgent meetings with Foreign Office officials to try to get the Government to take unprecedented steps to save their client's life.
The lawyers and the Foreign Office have been working closely with the US-based British barrister Clive Stafford-Smith, a renowned champion of human rights, particularly in death penalty cases, and Reprieve, a British charity who aim to provide effective legal representation and humanitarian assistance to impoverished people that face the death penalty in the USA and Caribbean.
In February, the Foreign Office
said that before its lawyers formally intervened in the cases it would
continue to use diplomatic channels to help to secure a reprieve for both
men. "We are to make diplomatic representations on behalf of Housel"
the spokeswoman said.
Andie
Lambe, UK director of Reprieve,
described the Government's involvement as "an historic step forward"
that not only granted UK recognition to British-American Death Row inmates
but also gave diplomatic force to the campaign to keep the men alive.
A top London law firm will shortly be writing an Amicus brief on behalf
of Tracy and Reprieve will be passing it to Parliament for signatures.