Who is Tracy Housel?

Tracy Housel was born at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital on May 7, 1958 to Americans William and Lula Mae Housel. At the time his father was a sheet metal worker at US Base at Kindley Field, and the couple had married the year before - he at age 43 and she at age 14.

The family returned to the United States when Tracy was one, and he grew up in impoverished circumstances marked by serious injury and illness, for which his father refused to seek medical help.

The boy was twice seriously concussed, and at age 11 suffered serious brain damage following a car crash.

Both parents became abusive alcoholics, and their children bore the physical and mental brunt of their violent rages and dysfunctional behaviour. Later, as damaged adults, one brother would commit suicide while another is facing life imprisonment for his third armed robbery offence.

In time, Tracy joined the US Navy and served as a submariner, travelling the world. He married, had a son, divorced, remarried and had a daughter, who lives in Spain but keeps in touch.

In the early 1980s he moved to Iowa, where he formed a relationship with Robin Banks, a widow with children.

His demeanour ranged from relaxed and loving to sudden mood swings, during which he would drink, take drugs, and eat little.

When the relationship ended in 1985 he embarked on a violent, two-week journey across the United States, during which Police claimed he was responsible for a host of crimes, including the near-fatal stabbing of a man in Iowa; the raping and beating to death of a man in Texas; a woman being forced to perform a sex act in New Jersey.

Finally there was the beating and strangling of Jean Drew in Georgia.

Housel was eventually arrested for her murder in Florida, a crime to which he confessed and the only one for which he was charged.

While awaiting trial in Georgia, he was held in solitary confinement and allegedly subjected to various forms of brutality at the hands of his interrogators.

At his trial, he was represented by an inexperienced lawyer who advised him to plead guilty, thus depriving him of a defence of insanity.

Nor was it mentioned at the trial that, in addition to his traumatic childhood, the brain-damaged Housel had an ongoing medical condition which, when combined with drugs and alcohol, triggered the psychotic episodes. With the benefit of hindsight, that lawyer today admits his advice would have been very different.

During the trial the jury also heard evidence of the other episodes in Housel's crime sprees, which they should not have, and which affected their guilty verdict.

In fact, it was not until two years after his trial that his new lawyers, Beth Wells and Robert McGlasson, had him examined by mental health experts and leading neuro-physicians.

They later testified that Housel suffered from an extreme form of an endocrine disorder which made him prone to psychotic episodes, and unable to distinguish right from wrong.

They added that it was during one of these episodes that the crime for which he has been sentenced to death was committed.

Today, Housel awaits the outcome his final appeal to the US Supreme Court, which was launched last month.

Because he was born in Bermuda he is considered to be a British national, and his case has also been taken up between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London and the US Government.

Should these final avenues fail, 42-year-old Housel will be electrocuted in the Georgia Diagnostic Prison, 16 years after its doors first clanged behind him.