The British government is preparing to launch a legal...

The British government is preparing to launch a legal challenge against America over its use of the death penalty.
In an unprecedented move the Foreign Office will instruct lawyers to intervene in an attempt to halt the executions of two men with dual British and US nationality currently on Death Row. One, Tracy Housel, 42, is scheduled to die in the electric chair before the end of 2001. Britain is also considering taking a case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to challenge America over its death penalty policy.
Housel, who was born a British citizen in Bermuda, was convicted of beating and strangling to death a woman in Georgia. He was sentenced to die in 1985. His lawyers argue that he was suffering from a mental illness at the time of the crime and may have been badly advised by his lawyers about his guilty plea.
The second man, Jackie Elliott, 41, was born at the former Bentwaters air force base in Suffolk to American parents. He denied but was convicted of the rape and murder of an 18-year-old woman 15 years ago. His American lawyers believe another man, who gave evidence against him at the trial, was responsible for the murder.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said that the former foreign secretary Robin Cook had made clear that government policy was to express Britain's "strong opposition to the death penalty and its imposition on British nationals".
Lawyers acting for Housel 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.