27 feb

ATLANTA - The British government has plunged into a campaign to spare the life of Tracy Lee Housel, a dual American-British citizen scheduled to be executed next month for a 1985 Georgia murder.

Housel's death warrant was signed Wednesday by a Gwinnett County judge, and his execution by injection was set for March 12 at 7 p.m. (0000 GMT).

He was condemned for the rape and beating death of a woman he met at a Lawrenceville truck stop in 1985.

Housel, 43, holds dual citizenship because he was born in Bermuda, a British dependency, but he has lived most of his life in the United States.

The British government still stepped forward on his behalf, pleading with the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute his sentence to life in prison.

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw phoned Georgia Gov.

Roy Barnes on Wednesday trying to get the execution stopped.

Barnes' spokeswoman, Joselyn Baker, said the governor explained he does not have the authority to change the sentence and referred Straw to the parole board.

Straw wrote the parole board earlier this month on Housel's behalf.

<The British government fully shares Georgia's desire to punish violent criminals and recognizes the need for severe penalties,> Straw wrote. <We are not, however, persuaded that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment or deterrent.>  A spokeswoman for Straw said it's policy to speak out against the death penalty when imposed on any British citizen, regardless of the facts of the case.

The Law Society, representing 80,000 lawyers in England and Wales, also wrote to the parole board, and 121 members of the British Parliament signed a motion calling for the sentence to be commuted.

Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter was unmoved.

<Housel is no more English than I am,> Porter said. <To me, it's a very legalistic ploy to involve another government to manipulate the judicial system of Georgia.>  Housel, described by police as a drifter, confessed to robbing and raping his 46-year-old victim before strangling her and bashing her head in.

Testifying during his sentencing hearing, Housel also admitted he beat a Texas truck driver to death with a hammer, and stabbed and slashed the throat of an Iowa man.

He has also been linked to three other murders and the rape of a woman in New Jersey, Porter said.

 <Housel was traveling around the country at the time luring people in at truck stops, then raping and killing them,> Porter said. <He is a serial killer, and he deserves to be executed.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Housel's appeal on Monday, clearing the way for the  reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Georgia has executed some 28 people in that period.