With just eight days remaining before the scheduled execution of Bermuda-born Tracy Housel on March 12, lawyer and former Bermuda resident Gary Proctor is making a personal appeal to the people of Bermuda to join the growing international clamour for his sentence to be commuted to a term of imprisonment.

Following rejection of his final appeal to the US Supreme Court, 43-year-old Housel's last hope rests with the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is scheduled to make its eleventh-hour decision on March 11 as to whether or not the death sentence is carried out.

To date British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, more than 100 British members of parliament, the British Law Society, representing over 80,000 lawyers in England and Wales, and anti-death campaigners, including Sister Helen Prejean, whose life was portrayed in the film, 'Dead Men Walking', have all appealed to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles for clemency.

Members of Amnesty International in the UK are planning to enlist public support by demonstrating in London some time this week.

What response, if any, Premier Jennifer Smith will make to a British Foreign Office request for the Bermuda Government to join the British Government's appeal for clemency for Housel is still unknown.

In a letter dated January 29 Baroness Amos, Minister in charge of Overseas Territories, requested that the Premier make representations to the Board of Pardons and Paroles and the Governor of Georgia to commute the death sentence to a term of imprisonment.

Acting Governor Tim Gurney confirmed receipt of the letter but declined to provide further details.

A written appeal to the Premier from the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center dated December 17, 2001 remains unacknowledged.

However, Attorney General Dame Lois Browne Evans has taken a personal interest in the case, and is writing to the Pardons and Paroles board as a private citizen asking for clemency.

Through his local contacts, Mr. Proctor has gained a sense that Housel's plight is not raising the concern he feels it deserves among Bermuda's population, and with time fast ticking away he is appealing for an urgent change of attitude.

"As well as being a former resident of the Island I have had the pleasure of knowing Tracy for the last few years, and I am today asking all of the Island's inhabitants to make a personal appeal for clemency in the case," he said.

"He was born in Bermuda and qualifies as a British citizen in consequence thereof. This 'tenuous' link has been sufficient for the British government to make several interventions on Mr. Housel's behalf."

"To ask the question, 'Why should I care?' is to ignore the human tragedy in all of this, which crosses all geographic boundaries. Mr. Housel is (slated) to die in a few short days.

"No matter what you think about his crimes surely we should all agree that his elderly mother does not deserve to watch her son killed in cold blood, nor do his many friends?"

"He faces an imminent and pre-meditated death, which leads me to the reason why I am appealing to the Bermuda public (to petition the Pardons and Parole Board).

"Bermudians can help by writing to the persons below and requesting clemency for Tracy Housel.

"You can make your request as someone who resides where Tracy was born, as a fellow British citizen, or simply as a denizen of humanity," Mr. Proctor urged.

Residents wishing to assist can write letters to:

Governor Roy Barnes, State Capitol Building, Constituent Services, Room 111, Atlanta, GA 30334 ( 404-656-1776, Fax: 404-657-7332, e-mail: www.gagovernor.org/governor/contact.html

Board of Pardons and Paroles, Contact: Walter Ray, MLK Jr. Drive, Floyd Veterans Memorial Building #2, East Tower, 4th Floor, Atlanta GA 30334, ( 404-656-5651

Fax: 404-651-6723 E-mail: www.pap.state.ga.us/comments/comments.cgi"

Meanwhile, Gwinnett county District Attorney Danny Porter last week was quoted as saying: "Housel is no more English than I am. To me it is a very legalistic ploy to involve another government to manipulate the legal system of Georgia. Housel was travelling around the country at the time luring people in at truck stops, then raping and killing them. He is a serial killer and he deserves to be executed."

Police have described Housel as a drifter who confessed to robbing and raping his 46-year-old victim before strangling her and crushing her skull, and Mr. Porter alleges that he was also linked to three other murders and the rape of a woman in New Jersey. Testifying during his sentencing hearing, Housel is alleged to have admitted beating a Texas truck driver to death with a hammer, and stabbing and slashing the throat of an Iowa man. However, he was never charged with these crimes, and has only ever been convicted of Miss Drew's death.

Yesterday, Georgia Federal Defender Robert McGlasson, who heads Housel's US legal team, expressed outrage at the District Attorney's claims, and moved swiftly to refute them.

"There is no evidence of these alleged 'serial' killings," he said. "Mr. Porter is simply trying to thwart clemency efforts by throwing sufficient quantities of mud in the hope that some of it sticks."

In an extensive interview published in yesterday's The Sunday Times, Housel claimed he could not remember his conduct during his homicidal spree across America, but expressed remorse. "It was all a drugged-up fog. "I am deeply, deeply sorry for what I did. I will never forget what I did to Jean Drew and her family. I wake up every day with the terrible shame of my actions. I will always have blood on my hands."

Speaking of his relief at having the cause of his psychotic episodes finally diagnosed and treated while in prison, Housel was further quoted as saying: "You can't take a life without wondering why you did it...but I've since learnt that I wasn't a freak of nature or some inherently evil creature, but that I was medically sick."