BRITON Tracy Housel will tonight finally end his 16-year wait for execution by being strapped to a table and given a lethal injection.The 43-year-old convicted murderer will become the first British citizen to be executed in America for seven years when he dies in the tiny windowless death chamber of the state prison in Jackson, Georgia.

BRITON Tracy Housel will tonight finally end his 16-year wait for execution by being strapped to a table and given a lethal injection.

The 43-year-old convicted murderer will become the first British citizen to be executed in America for seven years when he dies in the tiny windowless death chamber of the state prison in Jackson, Georgia.

Housel had a last-ditch clemency plea rejected last night, despite the backing of the British government, the European Union and the lawyer at his original trial, who has admitted making a string of errors.

The 43-year-old was convicted of the murder of hitchhiker Jean Drew in Winnett County, Georgia, and sentenced to death in 1986.

He holds dual American and British citizenship because he was born in Bermuda, a British territory, where his American parents were working and where he spent his first three years.

Housel had lost successive bids to have his sentence overturned and had a final appeal to the United States Supreme Court rejected last month, paving the way for tonight's execution.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw phoned Georgia' governor in an unsuccessful bid to have the sentence commuted and yesterday Michael Bates, the British consul-general in Atlanta, Georgia, lobbied the board hearing his clemency plea.

Mr Bates presented a "demarche", a legal document from all 15 members of the European Union, telling the board why they objected to the death penalty for Housel.

Sister Helen Prejean, who was portrayed by Susan Sarandon in critically-acclaimed film Dead Man Walking, also lobbied the board.

Housel's lawyers had claimed the jury which condemned him to death had not heard that he was suffering from childhood brain damage and a rare form of hypoglycaemia, or low blood sugar, which made him prone to psychotic episodes when he beat and strangled the hitchhiker in 1986.

They also claimed he was effectively tortured by police who held him in solitary confinement, interrogated him at night and "punished' him by making him stand in water while they prodded him with an electric stun gun.

And the lawyers alleged he was denied his right to proper legal representation by being given a court-appointed lawyer who had never handled a murder case and the jury which imposed the death penalty was told of alleged crimes for which he was never tried, including a man's rape and murder and a sexual assault on a woman.

Last night Beth Wells, one of the members of the legal team, said: "I speak for all of us when I say how appalled and sickened I am to hear that the state of Georgia plans to go ahead and kill Tracy Housel tomorrow.

"By denying Tracy clemency the USA has turned its back on the opinions and advice of not just the fifteen states of the European Union, but the direct representations of the UK Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister Tony Blair himself.

"George Bush has uttered a great many words in the past few weeks to denounce the 'axis of evil' that pervades the world today.

"By contrast, his silence in the face of the pre-planned and legally sanctioned killing of Tracy Housel has been deafening.'

Campaigners have called on Mr Blair to make a personal call to American president George Bush to ask him to make an executive order sparing Housel from death.

Last week they lobbied Mr Blair by demonstrating in Downing Street, asking him to call Mr Bush.

Housel told BBC News Online this week: "I believe in God and I believe in an afterlife, so I am not necessarily afraid of dying.

"It's a bizarre thing to know the exact date and minute of your death in advance and be totally powerless to stop it.

"I worry about how my actions have hurt others and constantly replay the events that led up to Jeanne Drew's death.'