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Tracy
Lee HOUSEL
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Rape - Robbery
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders: February/April1985
Date
of arrest:
June 4,
1985
Date of birth:
May 7,
1958
Victims profile: A man named Troy
/ Jeanne Drew
(female, 46)
Method of murder:
Beating with a hammer
/ Strangulation
Location: Texas/Georgia, USA
Status: Executed
by lethal injection in Georgia on March 12,
2002
Summary:
During a two-month period in early 1985, Tracy Housel killed a man in
Texas, stabbed a man in Iowa, sodomized a woman in New Jersey, and,
finally, killed Jeanne Drew in Gwinnett County, for whose murder he
received a death sentence.
Housel's confessions to all crimes were admitted in
evidence at sentencing, following his plea of guilty to the murder. In
addition, the surviving Iowa and New Jersey victims testified, as did
law enforcement officers from Texas, Florida and Georgia.
After "drinking all night," Housel met Jeanne Drew in
the early morning hours of April 7, 1985, at a Lawrenceville truck stop.
Housel said they had sex, and then went for a ride in her car, a silver-gray
Mustang.
They parked in an open area behind some woods and were having
sex again in the back seat of her car when he got the urge to spit.
Unfortunately, his spit hit her window. She began yelling at him, and he
lost his temper and began striking her with his fists. They got out of
the car and she spit blood on him. Then he really hit her, then got on
his knees and strangled her, and then he picked up a stick and beat her
face to a "bloody pulp."
Housel left her lying there, and drove her car
to Daytona Beach, Florida, where, using her credit cards, he stayed
several days prior to being arrested. Jean Drew's body was found later
that morning, nude from the waist down. Her head was "extensively
traumatized and disfigured."
Citations:
Housel v. State, 355 S.E.2d 651 (Ga. 1987) (Direct Appeal).
Final Meal:
Steak, baked potato, corn, ice cream and a chocolate milkshake.
Final Words:
Housel smiled and winked at the warden and recited verses from the Old
and New Testaments read by the chaplain, the 23rd Psalm and 2nd
Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verse 17 -- "The old is gone and the new has
come." He also apologized to the family of Jean Drew.
ClarkProsecutor.org
ProDeathPenalty.com
Evidence was presented at the sentencing trial that,
during a two-month period in early 1985, Tracy Housel killed a man in
Texas, stabbed a man in Iowa, sodomized a woman in New Jersey, and,
finally, killed the woman in Gwinnett County, Georgia, for whose murder
he received the death sentence in this case.
Housel's pre-trial statements concerning these crimes
were admitted in evidence. In addition, the surviving Iowa and New
Jersey victims testified, as did law enforcement officers from Texas,
Florida and Georgia.
Housel left his wife in California in October of
1984, his marriage having unraveled as a result of his "being on the
road" all the time.
A month later Housel began living with a woman in
Council Bluffs, Iowa. In February 1985, Housel was at a truck stop in
Spring, Texas, "laid over trying to get a load." Housel stated, "We were
all in our leathers, dressed more or less like a rowdy little bike club,
just raising Hell and discontent."
He met a man named Troy, who had a quantity of
cocaine and was trying to sell it. Troy got drunk, and Housel helped him
out to his truck and went back to the bar. He learned (he said) that "a
couple of guys [were] planning on robbing [Troy] of all of his cocaine,"
but after he told them not to, they "left him alone." However, Housel
himself "was wanting, I guess, a little bit more cocaine," so he climbed
into Troy's cab "just [to] fix my nose again and go on about my business."
Troy woke up and accused Housel of trying to steal
his cocaine. When Troy grabbed him by the throat, Housel picked up a
hammer and hit him on the head eight or nine times.
Housel took Troy's
cocaine and a few other things, including a CB radio, a stereo, and
Troy's identification, put them into his bag, and drove the truck to
Beaumont, Texas, where he left it. He stated that Troy was still
breathing when he left Spring, but that he died somewhere between Spring
and Beaumont.
Troy's body was found in the sleeper of his cab,
seven miles from Beaumont, Texas, on February 20, 1985. He was nude from
the waist down, and had been anally sodomized.
On March 29, 1985, Housel was back in Council Bluffs,
Iowa. He met a man named Gary at a truck stop and asked him for a ride
to Des Moines, where perhaps he could get a job. Gary told him he would
take him as far as Atlantic, which was about halfway.
They got into
Gary's car and drove. Gary testified that when they reached the Atlantic
exit, Housel pulled out a knife and told him to drive on. A couple of
exits later, Housel told Gary to pull off the interstate and park. Then,
Gary testified, Housel demanded his wallet, and stabbed him as he
reached for it.
Housel stated that Gary made a gesture which he
interpreted as a homosexual advance, and he "freaked"; he pulled out his
knife and began stabbing him. Gary denied making any sexual advances. In
any event, Gary got out of his car, and Housel pushed him down a ravine.
When Gary climbed out, Housel stabbed him several more times and threw
him back in.
Gary had thrown away his keys, but Housel found a
spare key in the console and drove the car to New Jersey. Credit card
receipts found in Housel's belongings after he was arrested showed that
he had used Gary's credit cards in Iowa, Illinois and Pennsylvania on
March 30 and April 1.
On April 2, 1985, a young woman named Renee met
Housel at the apartment of a friend of hers in Phillipsburg, New Jersey.
Housel introduced himself as "Troy."
About 11:30 p.m., Renee announced
that she was going home. "Troy" (who Renee identified at trial as the
defendant) offered to escort her to her car. Once there, Housel entered
the car and began to strangle her, and then forced her to orally
sodomize him.
Telling her she was too nice to kill, he took all her
money and left. Renee testified that she had marks on her neck from
being strangled that did not finally disappear until late that summer.
Next, Housel drove Gary's car to Spartanburg, South
Carolina, where he abandoned it. He caught a ride from there to
Lawrenceville, Georgia.
After "drinking all night," Housel met the victim in
this case, Jean Drew, in the early morning hours of April 7, 1985, at a
Lawrenceville truck stop.
Housel said they had sex, and then went for a ride in
her car, a silver-gray Mustang. They parked in an open area behind some
woods, just off Beaver Ruin road in Gwinnett County. According to Housel,
they were having sex again in the back seat of her car when he got the
urge to spit. Unfortunately, his spit hit her window. She began yelling
at him, and he lost his temper and began striking her with his fists. (There
was blood all over the inside of the car when it was recovered.)
They
got out of the car. Her nose was bleeding, and she spit blood on him.
Then he really hit her, and she fell "like a ton of bricks." He got on
his knees and strangled her, and then he picked up a stick and beat her
face to a "bloody pulp."
Housel left her lying there, and drove her car to
Daytona Beach, Florida, where, using her credit cards, he stayed several
days prior to being arrested.
Jean Drew's body was found later that morning, nude
from the waist down. Her head was "extensively traumatized and
disfigured." There were "several lesions about the neck area," and there
was "blood smeared on both hands."
The pathologist who conducted the autopsy testified
that the victim was still alive at the time of strangulation, and that
the "[strangulation] force was fairly long in duration given the amount
of . . . contusion in the area of the neck . . .; the [hyoid] bone . . .
was broken . . . and there was digging of fingernails not just into the
skin and left in place, but actually tearing through the skin which is
another indication of a fair degree of struggle on the part of the
decedent." Several of the victim's teeth had been knocked out. Her mouth
was cut. Her skull was crushed in three places.
The pathologist testified that because of the
extensive trauma to the head, it was impossible to determine how many
times the victim had been struck. Cause of death was "a combination of
multiple head trauma and asphyxiation by strangulation."
Execution of Housel Major News in Europe
By Rhonda Cook -
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
March 13, 2002
JACKSON -- Considering the 20 foreign media
representatives outside the Georgia Diagnostics and Classification
Prison Tuesday, Europe was more interested in the execution of Tracy
Housel, a drifter and accused serial killer, than the people in this
state.
At 7:28 p.m., Housel became the sixth person Georgia
has put to death by lethal injection. The BBC broadcast that news live
to audiences in England. Throughout the evening, reporters for several
London newspapers and a French news service huddled under a tarpaulin
set up by corrections officials to stay out of a cold, steady rain. Only
five Georgia reporters were present. Housel, 43, was the focus of news
coverage in the United Kingdom and pleas for clemency by the European
Union because of his dual citizenship. He was born in Bermuda, a British
territory.
Housel was executed for killing Jean Drew, who he met
at a Gwinnett County truck stop restaurant in 1985. He also was linked
to murders in Texas and California and assaults in Iowa and New Jersey.
It was a friendly atmosphere in the death chamber, as
Housel chatted with nurses, officers and the warden. He was interested
in what was happening to him, asking questions and watching what they
did to him. He smiled and winked at the warden and recited verses from
the Old and New Testaments read by the chaplain -- the 23rd Psalm and
2nd Corinthians, Chapter 5, Verse 17 -- "The old is gone and the new has
come," they said. He apologized to the family of Jean Drew, though
corrections officials said they were unable to locate family members to
be present. While the drugs were administered, he sang, but the words
were not audible. As the drugs took effect, he gasped and snorted. After
several minutes, his chest stopped moving.
Earlier Tuesday, Housel was visited by his mother,
20-year-old son and ex-wife. Friend Gary Proctor, who met Housel in 1999
while doing some investigative work for Housel's lawyers, also was one
of his visitors. He said they talked about Harley-Davidson motorcycles
and Housel's days as a truck driver. Housel's last meal consisted of
steak, baked potato, salad, corn, a milkshake and ice cream.
Though Housel had pleaded guilty to murdering Drew,
Housel's lawyers and supporters tried to save him by arguing that he
would not have received the death penalty if the jury had heard that he
suffered several head injures as a child and was hypoglycemic and could
not be responsible for his actions when his blood sugar level dropped.
Diplomats from five European Union nations, British Prime Minister Tony
Blair and a member of the British Parliament worked on his behalf.
On Monday, the BBC reported live from outside the
building where the Department of Corrections and the state Board of
Pardons and Paroles have offices. BBC online reporter Jonathan Duffy
said it was England's "ghoulish fascination" with the death penalty,
which was abolished there nearly 40 years ago. The United States and 85
other countries have the death penalty. Tuesday night, Duffy reported
online that Housel became the first British man executed in America in
seven years. "News of Housel's fate will come as a bitter disappointment
to those in Britain who have fought for a reprieve," he wrote.
British Man Executed in U.S. for 1985 Murder
Reuters News
March 12, 2002
JACKSON, Ga. (Reuters) - A British man convicted of
the 1985 murder of a female hitchhiker was executed on Tuesday in
Georgia despite sharp protests, particularly in Britain. Tracy Housel,
43, received a lethal injection of drugs and chemicals at a state prison
in Jackson, 50 miles south of Atlanta, said Georgia Department of
Corrections spokesman Scott Stallings.
The execution occurred just hours after the Georgia
Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene. Housel's
attorneys had asked the courts to grant a stay of execution on the
grounds that Georgia's failure to notify British authorities at the time
of Housel's arrest and trial violated international law.
Housel was pronounced dead at 7:28 p.m., 11 minutes
after the execution began. He spent 16 years on death row for strangling
Jean Drew, whom he met at a truck stop in Gwinnett County, Georgia.
Authorities believed Housel was responsible for at least one other
murder and possibly more. Housel apologized for his crimes in a short
final statement before he was put to death.
"He said he was sorry for the pain he had caused the
victims and their families," said Stallings, who added that Housel
requested that two Bible verses, Psalm 23 and Second Corinthians,
Chapter 5, be read. Housel received a fresh set of clothes and ate a
final meal of steak, baked potato, corn, ice cream and a chocolate
milkshake prior to the insertion of the needles in the prison death
chamber. Housel was one of four Britons on death row in the United
States. Born in the British colony of Bermuda, he held dual U.S. and
British citizenship. He came to the United States as a child and lived
there most of his life.
BRITAIN, EU PLEAD IN VAIN
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and representatives
of four other European Union nations pleaded in vain with Georgia to
show mercy to Housel. The 15-nation European Union forbids its members
from practicing capital punishment. Britain abolished the death penalty
about 40 years ago.
Laura Moye of Amnesty International, a group that
also opposes the death penalty, said the execution showed the United
States was out of step on the issue of capital punishment. "I think we
are continuing to alienate ourselves from the international community,
which is more and more turning away from the death penalty," Moye said.
"It's a very sad day."
Hopes of a reprieve dimmed dramatically on Monday
when Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected arguments that the
death sentence should be commuted because Housel reportedly suffered
from brain damage and a psychosis induced by hypoglycemia at the time of
his crime. Georgia rarely grants clemency in death row cases without
some mitigating factor, such as mental illness.
The state has granted
clemency to only a handful of death row inmates since the death penalty
was restored in the 1970s.
Housel pleaded guilty to Drew's murder in 1986.
According to court testimony, the murder was the culmination of a
nationwide crime spree. Housel also allegedly raped and killed a man in
Texas, slashed another man's throat in Iowa and sexually assaulted a
woman in New Jersey.
He was not prosecuted for the other alleged crimes
after his conviction for Drew's murder. Housel said he was not fully
responsible for Drew's murder because of brain injuries supposedly
suffered from falls and a car accident during childhood. Housel's former
lawyer also admitted he made grievous mistakes at the 1986 trial and
sentencing. It is common in U.S. death penalty appeals for lawyers to
argue a client received incompetent legal representation at trial.
Georgia Executes British-American
By Barnini
Chakraborty -
Associated Press
March 12, 2002
JACKSON, Ga. (AP) - Ignoring pleas from Great Britain,
Georgia executed a dual British-American citizen Tuesday night for
raping and murdering a woman 17 years ago. Before he was given a lethal
injection, Tracy Lee Housel apologized and told his friends and family,
"Take care of yourselves. May God be with you all."
Housel, who was born in the British territory of
Bermuda, admitted picking up Jean Drew, 46, at a suburban Atlanta truck
stop in 1985, then raping her and bashing her head. During his
sentencing hearing, Housel also admitted beating a Texas truck driver to
death with a hammer and stabbing an Iowa man.
The execution drew intense media interest in Great
Britain, which abandoned capital punishment 40 years ago. Prime Minister
Tony Blair had asked Georgia's parole board to commute Housel's sentence
to life in prison.
The Law Society, representing lawyers in England and
Wales, also wrote to the parole board, and members of the British
Parliament signed a motion calling for Housel's sentence to be commuted.
The Georgia parole board turned down Housel's plea for mercy Monday.
There has never been any question that Housel committed the crime, but
his lawyers argued his initial trial was unfair and his court-appointed
attorney inexperienced. Under his lawyer's advice, Housel pleaded guilty
and his defense at the sentencing trial lasted less than 30 minutes.
Tracy Housel's last day
By Jonathan Duffy - BBC News Online
Tuesday, 12 March, 2002
Barring an unlikely eleventh
hour intervention, British national Tracy Housel is living his last day.
He is due to be executed by the American state of Georgia at 1900 local
time (0000 GMT).
0900 (1400 GMT): Housel's
day starts at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in
Jackson. He is allowed to meet friends and family, which will include
his mother, Lula Mae Pellerin and his 20-year-old son Randall Housel. He
will also be able to meet his lawyers who are frantically trying to win
a stay of execution after Housel's final plea for clemency was turned
down on Monday.
Housel's legal team have filed a
claim alleging his human rights had been violated while he was held on
remand for the murder of Jeanne Drew in 1985. They are appealing to the
Georgia Supreme Court after the claim was dismissed by a lower court on
Monday. They have pledged to appeal up to the United States Supreme
Court.
1430 (1930 GMT): Housel
has half-an-hour to say his last goodbyes to his family in person.
1500 (2000 GMT): Housel's
family will be asked to leave the prison grounds and will not be allowed
back. Unlike some other states, in Georgia the inmate's family is not
allowed to witness his execution.
Housel is taken back to his cell
where he will receive a medical examination and be given a new set of
prison clothes - white trousers and white shirt. These are the clothes
he will wear for the execution.
1530 (2230 GMT): Housel
will be transferred to a holding cell, which is just a door away from
the death chamber. He will have his last meal, which he has request to
be steak, baked potato, corn, salad, a milk shake and ice cream.
He will also be allowed to
record, on tape, a last statement.
From the room, Housel will be
able to glimpse of the outside world from a skylight. He will also have
access to a television and newspapers and will be able to make telephone
calls to his family and lawyers, on the approval of a prison warden.
He will also have access to a
chaplain.
1830 (2330 GMT): Housel
will be escorted from the holding cell to the death chamber, placed in
the gurney and strapped down. Two intravenous tubes - a primary and
secondary line - will be inserted into his arm and he will be hooked up
to a EKG machine, which monitors heart rate.
1855 (2355 GMT):
Georgia's attorney general will give clearance to the state's
commissioner of corrections to proceed with the execution. The
commissioner will in turn advise the execution warden to go ahead.
1856 (2356 GMT): The
warden will read out the death warrant and Housel will then be given two
minutes to amend his last statement if he wishes. He will also be
offered a prayer and has agreed to have a chaplain present.
1859 (2359 GMT): The
chaplain will leave the execution chamber, leaving only Housel and a
doctor present.
Five members of the press -
seated in a room next door - will witness the execution through a window,
as will two additional doctors, the warden and the attorney general. The
family of Housel's victim, Jeanne Drew, will not be allowed to observe.
1900 (0000 GMT): The
execution by lethal injection will proceed. From an adjoining room, two
prison staff workers will remotely, and alternately, administer the
injections.
The first injection will be
sodium pentothal, a sedative. This will be followed by pavulon, which
paralyses the lungs, and finally potassium chloride, which stops the
heart.
Each injection will be followed
by the release of a saline solution to clean the tubes.
1910 (0010 GMT): Death
usually occurs within 10 minutes. The first indication is from the EKG
machine which will show Housel's heart has stopped beating. This will
then be confirmed by the doctor who is present in the cell with Housel.
The warden will then enter the
room with two other doctors, who are there to verify death.
Housel's body is then taken from
the gurney by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for an autopsy in
Atlanta.
It will be returned to Housel's
family on Wednesday.
European Appeals Fail to Halt Housel Execution
By Rhonda Cook -
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
March 11, 2002
Despite the pleas of diplomats from five European
countries, including a member of England's Parliament and British Prime
Minister Tony Blair, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles refused to
stop today's planned execution of Tracy Housel. Unless a court steps in,
Housel today will become the sixth person in Georgia put to death by
lethal injection since Oct. 25.
Housel is scheduled to die at 7 p.m. for the 1985
murder of Jean Drew, a woman he met at a Gwinnett County truck stop
during the early morning hours of Easter Sunday. He pleaded guilty to
Drew's murder and has admitted to as many as 17 slayings, though the
victims' names are not all known and he was not tried in any since he
already was under a death sentence in Georgia.
While his looming execution has received relatively
little notice in this state, it is a top news story in England, where he
holds dual citizenship because he was born in Bermuda, a British
territory.
The BBC has sent 10 reporters, photographers and producers
here and several London newspapers also have sent correspondents to
Georgia. "There is a ghoulish fascination with the death penalty and
certainly with America," said BBC online reporter Jonathan Duffy. For
almost two hours Monday, the five-member board met with more than a
dozen people who wanted Housel spared, including diplomats from the
European Union countries England, France, Germany, Belgium and Greece; a
member of the British Parliament and Sister Helen Prejean, a nun who
works with death row inmates and author of the book "Dead Man Walking."
Letters from Blair and the archbishop of Canterbury were presented.
Last month, the EU protested the scheduled lethal
injection of Alexander Williams, whose death sentence the parole board
later commuted. Housel lived in Bermuda only as a baby, but still
Britain sees him as one of theirs and so they have tried to play on the
friendship between the two countries. "Friends don't execute their
friends," said Clive Stafford Smith, one of Housel's attorneys. England
abandoned capital punishment 40 years ago. Eighty-six countries,
including the United States, have the death penalty.
Housel's lawyers argued the pardons board should
spare Housel because the jury that sentenced him did not know that he
suffered several head injuries as a child and was hypoglycemic and could
not be held responsible for anything he did when his blood sugar was low.
His backers say he has changed . "Years of confinement have created a
man of reflection," Sister Prejean said. "Granted [he is] a man who has
done a terrible crime.. . . But do we have to freeze-frame him in that
time?"
Britain Seeks to Halt Georgia Execution
By Henry Weinstein -
Los Angeles Times
March 11, 2002
Diplomacy:A forceful movement hopes to have the dual
citizen's sentence commuted. His guilt is beyond doubt. - British
leaders are waging an unusually strong campaign to convince Georgia
state officials to spare the life of a British citizen who is scheduled
to be executed Tuesday for a 1985 murder.
The guilt of Tracy L. Housel--sentenced
to death for killing Jeanne Drew, whom he met at a truck stop northeast
of Atlanta--is not in question. The doubts are about his mental health
at the time of the murder, as well as his legal defense. The case "has
haunted me for years," confessed his former lawyer, Walter M. Britt.
Although Britain, like all other western European
countries, has outlawed the death penalty, the Housel case marks the
first time that government officials have weighed in on behalf of a
British citizen on death row in the U.S. British Foreign Minister Jack
Straw has called Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, the British ambassador has
called the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles and more than 100
members of Parliament say they favor clemency for Housel, who is one of
four British nationals on death row in the U.S. Vera Baird, a member of
Parliament and the Queens Council, plans to speak on Housel's behalf
today when the parole board holds a hearing on Housel's clemency bid. "I
will be bringing a letter from the prime minister [Tony Blair] showing
that he wishes the sentence to be commuted" to life without possibility
of parole, Baird said over the weekend.
The five-member board has the sole power to commute a
death sentence in Georgia. The case has not generated much attention in
this country, but it has been covered extensively in the British press.
On Thursday, death penalty opponents demonstrated outside 10 Downing
Street urging Blair to weigh in, as Mexican President Vicente Fox did on
behalf of a Mexican national facing the death penalty last year in
Oklahoma. That man's sentence was commuted to life. The British
government's support for Housel represents a new step in that country's
opposition to the death penalty, said Clive Stafford-Smith, a New
Orleans-based attorney who specializes in death penalty appeals and is a
British native.
In 1995, Stafford-Smith and others failed to persuade
then-Prime Minister John Major to intervene on behalf of Nick Ingram, a
convicted murderer who was executed in Georgia. Ingram, who like Housel
had dual British and U.S. citizenship, is the only Briton who has been
executed in the U.S. since the federal government reinstated the death
penalty in 1976. The initiative comes at a time of growing ferment
against the death penalty in various parts of the world, particularly
Western Europe; countries are not admitted into the European Union if
they have the death penalty. Britain is one of 75 nations that has
abolished capital punishment for all crimes; 109 countries around the
world have either banned the death penalty or have ceased using it.
There are 118 foreign nationals from 33 countries on U.S. death rows.
A Hope for Compassion
"We are not asking anyone to forgive Tracy, just to
show some compassion," said Stafford-Smith, who also will speak to the
pardon board today. "He would spend the rest of his life in prison if we
succeed." Also protesting the pending execution are Amnesty
International, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and Sister Helen
Prejean, the noted death penalty foe. She also plans to speak on
Housel's behalf today.
But Gwinnett County prosecutors, who during a 1986
trial described Housel as a predator who "deserves no mercy," firmly
assert that he should die for his crimes. Gwinnett County Dist. Atty.
Danny Porter described Housel as a calculating killer. "He's like Ted
Bundy," Porter said, referring to the Florida serial killer executed in
1989 for murdering eight women. "He's charming and smart. If you met him
at a truck stop, you'd take him home to meet your sister and then he'd
kill her," he said.
Through his attorneys, Housel, now 43, has expressed
remorse for murdering Drew. His murder conviction and death sentence
have been upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court twice, a federal district
court in Atlanta and the federal appeals court there. The U.S. Supreme
Court has twice declined to review the case, most recently in February.
Appellate attorneys Robert L. McGlasson and Mary
Elizabeth Wells contend Housel should be given clemency because he had a
serious mental defect at the time of the crime and received
constitutionally deficient representation from a court-appointed lawyer
who was trying his first capital murder case. The attorney, Britt,
decided that the case against Housel was strong and encouraged him to
plead guilty. Such a plea is generally accompanied by a promise from
prosecutors not to seek the death penalty, but not in this case. Housel
had been charged with murdering Drew, raping her, stealing her car and
using her credit cards. Prosecutors dropped the rape charge in exchange
for the guilty plea, a deal that yielded no benefit to Housel.
During the penalty phase, Britt mounted a skimpy
presentation, calling only three witnesses and taking only 30 minutes,
according to court documents. Years after the trial, new lawyers were
appointed to represent Housel and discovered he was abused as a child
and suffers from severe hypoglycemia, a blood sugar imbalance that, if
left untreated, can render a person psychotic, according to experts
retained by the defense. In the federal district court appeal, Dr. Buris
Boshell, an endocrinology expert, testified that Housel "underwent an
acute state of hypoglycemia, exacerbated by alcohol, at the time of the
crime." "When in the throes of a hypoglycemic episode, as [Housel] was
at the time of this crime, Mr. Housel did not have the mental capacity
to distinguish between right and wrong," he said.
The district attorney scoffed at the suggestion. "Most
people who have hypoglycemia eat a candy bar; they don't rape and murder,"
Porter said. Two other mental health experts who examined Housel for the
hearing concluded that he "suffers from brain damage and severe
psychological impairments," according to a recent defense brief.
Housel, who was born in the British territory of
Bermuda, spent a good deal of his youth living in poverty in Rhode
Island. He was frequently beaten by his father and neglected by his
mother, who married at age 14 and was an alcoholic, according to court
testimony. Housel also suffered several head injuries that went
untreated because his father did not believe in doctors, according to
testimony. But Britt did not learn any of this when representing Housel.
In fact, both Housel and his mother testified during the trial's penalty
phase that he had a "normal" upbringing. Britt acknowledged that he
provided an inadequate defense. "I have to live with the fact that I
helped to put my client on death row. If I had known then what I know
now, I would never have advised Mr. Housel to plead guilty," Britt said.
He believes that if the evidence of Housel's mental
problems had been presented to the jury, his client would not have been
convicted of capital murder. "Even if we did not prevail at trial, it
would have provided the jury with a reason to spare Tracy's life." But a
federal trial judge and the federal appeals court have rejected
arguments that Britt's performance was constitutionally deficient. "A
failure to investigate [the client's background] is not a unique
category of counsel omission that automatically satisfies" the Supreme
Court test for ineffective counsel, the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of
Appeals ruled last year.
Jury Heard Allegations
Once Britt was told that Housel's upbringing was
normal, the attorney could reasonably have decided to investigate no
further, the appeals court said. Housel's backers also contend that his
rights were violated during the trial's penalty phase because
prosecutors told jurors about other crimes Housel allegedly was involved
in--including a murder in Texas and assaults in Iowa and New Jersey--even
though he was not charged in those crimes.
Under Georgia law, prosecutors may present evidence
of unadjudicated offenses during the penalty phase of a capital murder
trial. Georgia and Texas have the loosest standards in the nation
permitting such evidence during sentencing. In California, a jury is
permitted to consider it only if the jury finds beyond a reasonable
doubt that the defendant committed that offense. Last year, in a ruling
stemming from a Texas case, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights
concluded that it is a violation of human rights to introduce such
evidence. That decision is not binding on any U.S. court. Housel's
attorneys claim that the introduction of the unadjudicated offenses,
which were a central component of the prosecution's evidence in the
penalty phase, violated the 8th Amendment's bar against cruel and
unusual punishment. But the 11th Circuit Court declined last year to
consider the merits of this argument.
Housel Set to Die Next Tuesday
By Dyana Bagby -
Gwinnett Daily Post
March 6, 2002
LAWRENCEVILLE - Tracy Housel, sentenced to death for
killing a Lawrenceville woman in 1985, is set to die by lethal injection
next Tuesday. If the execution takes place, he would be the first person
convicted in Gwinnett to be put to death in more than 50 years. Walt
Britt, the local attorney who was appointed just out of law school to
defend Housel more than 16 years ago, readily admits today he made many
mistakes at the trial and if Housel is executed, it would be "totally
devastating." "My mistakes had a lot to do with putting Tracy Housel on
death row," Britt said Tuesday. "I've never been inept, but there are
certain things I didn't know to look for then that I do know now."
However, the lead investigator at the time, John
Latty, now a colonel with the Gwinnett Police Department, says Housel is
a sociopath and "cold-blooded killer" who forfeited his right to live
when he strangled to death Jean Drew, a 46-year-old Lawrenceville mother,
and left her body in a driveway. "I think it (the execution) should have
taken place 15 years ago," Latty said Wednesday. "I think it's a
travesty he's been able to sit on death row for so long." District
Attorney Danny Porter puts it even more bluntly: "He is a serial killer
who deserves to die."
Emotions are running high among those involved in
this case, as they typically do in most death penalty cases. This case,
especially for Gwinnett, is unusual, however, in that the British
government is asking Georgia authorities to grant Housel clemency. A
British national Born in the British-controlled Bermuda in 1958, Tracy
Housel is a British citizen. In January 2001, the Foreign Office
recognized Housel as such and, since then, the British government,
including Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and members of Parliament, have
been attempting to secure Housel clemency through phone calls and
letters submitted to the state's parole board. Why? The United Kingdom
opposes the death penalty. And Housel's case is not the only one the
British government is involved in - there are four other British
citizens on American death rows. But, as Housel's Atlanta and London
attorneys continue to say, he did not receive a fair trial and that is
the primary reason why he shouldn't be executed.
Housel, under Britt's advise, pleaded guilty to the
1985 murder of Jean Drew and in return a rape charge was dropped. Housel
was also incriminated in another murder and two other crimes, committed
during a crime spree across the country, but was never charged with the
other alleged crimes. Prosecutors were, however, able to present to the
jury his alleged involvement in these crimes which, said attorney Beth
Wells of Atlanta's Federal Defense Program, is a violation of domestic
as well as international law. "Georgia is one of only a very few states
that allows this (presentation of evidence of other alleged crimes),"
she said. "Mr. Britt objected to this" but he was overruled.
'Mistakes were made' Walt Britt has earned a
reputation in Gwinnett as a tough defense attorney. Just recently, he
was instrumental in getting all jury trials here halted for two months
when, during a hearing for another death penalty client, he convinced a
judge the county's management of the jury process was improper.
The
judge ruled the jury pool invalid and county officials just recently
completed assorting a new pool; trials are expected to start back up
next week. But, Britt readily admits today, he did not know how to
handle such a serious case when he defended Housel in 1986, just five
years after graduating from law school. Housel's trial was Britt's first
capital case and he handled it alone at a time when the state didn't
provide adequate funding and training for court-appointed attorneys, he
said. "There was no adequate funding then and there's still none," he
said. "There is an evolving standard, but it is a true injustice to
subject the defendant, me and the whole system to such an unfair
situation." Facts Britt and his current attorneys say should be
considered as mitigating circumstances for Housel, that weren't
considered during the sentencing, are:
He suffers from hypoglycemia, a condition of severe
blood sugar imbalance. Since the trial, a medical expert has concluded
that Housel had undergone an acute state of hypoglycemia, exacerbated by
alcohol, at the time of the crime and would not have been able to
distinguish right from wrong, to control his behavior, or to form intent
necessary for first-degree murder. Two mental health experts state
Housel suffers from brain damage and psychological impairment, which
combined with his drug and alcohol abuse, impaired his ability to
recognize the criminality of his conduct.
Housel was raised in abusive household in very
impoverished conditions and didn't receive proper medical care as a
child. "I didn't present a lot of things that I should've presented," he
said. "He has a history of abuse by his father and there is medical
evidence of brain damage. I didn't discover this then, but now I know
what to look for. It would be a whole different type of trial if I knew
what I know now." Over the years, Britt has continued to stay in touch
with Housel and is working with his current attorneys to try get him
clemency. He plans to visit Housel today. Britt is also vehemently
opposed to the death penalty. "I'm opposed to it ethically, morally and
for religious purposes. I get personally involved in all my cases and
this is totally devastating," he said.
Housel is an 'enigma' Col. John Latty remembers
Housel's crime "vividly." Jean Dellinger Drew, 46, a woman Housel met an
Interstate 85 truck stop near Gwinnett Place Mall on April 7, 1985 was
found dead; she had been robbed, raped, strangled and beaten in the head
with a blunt instrument. "He murdered for pleasure. The woman he killed
here had a son and other family - they're still victims and this long
wait has been exceedingly painful for them," he said. Latty said Housel
confessed to a total of 17 murders and a host of other crimes.
During
the year he was in jail at the Gwinnett Detention Center, Housel would
call Latty regularly to discuss these other crimes. All he wanted was a
Burger King Whopper and non-filtered cigarettes. "So we would give him a
Whopper and cigarettes and he would tell us just enough to whet our
appetites," Latty remembered. Sometimes the information Housel gave
Latty, such as a truck hijacking, would be true and law enforcement
officials in another state could close a case. "I always considered him
an enigma - he's like two different people," Latty said. "He's
sociopathic. He can be interesting and charming, personable and social,
but he is a cold-blooded killer."
Latty visited Housel in jail just last Wednesday,
shortly after he had his death warrant read to him. Latty asked him for
information about the 15 other murders he said he committed - he hopes
to get information to close more cases before Housel dies. Housel said
he couldn't discuss the case, but the two men talked for nearly an hour
about "old times," Latty said. "He asked about all the detectives (that
worked his case), he remembered all their names. He asked about my
career," he said. "He said he was prepared to die. He hated to die on
March 12, but he had asked for forgiveness and was prepared. It was more
of a personal conversation," said Latty. "I harbor no hatred toward
Tracy Housel, but it's the law. He killed for pleasure."
A clemency hearing is set for Monday morning in
Atlanta and at a press conference set to take place before the hearing,
Sister Helen Prejean, the author of Dead Man Walking, and Vera Baird, a
member of the British Parliament, will speak out on Housel's behalf.
On Death Row, a Final Plea for Victim Names
By
Carlos Frias -
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, March 10, 2002
As time runs out for convicted murderer Tracy Lee
Housel, 43, it runs out as well for Gwinnett County police Col. John
Latty. Sixteen years ago, Housel confessed to Latty something that has
haunted him. A one-word answer to an enormous question. "How many
murders have you committed?" Latty asked Housel in February 1986. It was
days before a jury would sentence Housel to death row for the beating
death of Lawrenceville resident Jean Drew in April of 1985. "Just give
me a number," Latty insisted. "Seventeen," Housel said. Seventeen
victims. Fourteen have not been identified. Fourteen families wonder
what happened to their sons or daughters, fathers or mothers. That
number has stayed with Latty, just as the identities of those victims
have remained in Housel's head.
With two days remaining before Housel's execution by
lethal injection, scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Latty has asked Housel
one final question: Will he write down the names of his victims and
instruct his lawyers to give the list to police after his execution?
It's Housel's last chance to give those families peace, Latty told him
when they spoke on Jan. 27, shortly after a judge signed Housel's death
warrant. It was the first time Latty and Housel had spoken since the
1986 trial. But Housel, who went on a violent cross-country crime spree
that included the beating death of an Orange County, Texas, trucker,
believes he may be able to escape execution.
The British government is working to commute his
death sentence, since he was born in the British territory of Bermuda,
and the United Kingdom does not condone the death penalty. If his
sentence is commuted at a hearing Monday, Housel knows he could face a
death penalty trial in at least one other state. Still, Housel told
Latty he would consider his request. Now Latty can only wait. "I've done
all I can do," Latty said. "It's on him now."
The Gwinnett victim
Sometimes, Jean Drew just needed to hear friendly
voices. She spent her days caring for her elderly mother, who suffered
from Alzheimer's, and Drew needed some social interaction. Back in 1985,
when Gwinnett was mostly undeveloped, there wasn't much to do on a
Saturday night in Lawrenceville. Usually, after her mother took her
medication and went to sleep, Jean had the evening to herself. So, when
she couldn't go ballroom dancing with friends, she would go to the diner
at the Union 76 Auto-Truck Stop near I-85 and Pleasant Hill Road.
On the night of April 6, 1985, a waitress and several
customers remember Drew sitting with a young truck driver, laughing and
chatting. The two drove off together in the wee hours of April 7 ---
Easter Sunday --- in her 1981 silver Ford Mustang. Drew stood out
because she was a regular. Housel stood out because of the jewelry he
was wearing. One waitress clearly remembered a gaudy ring she saw on one
of the young man's hands. Later that morning, police found the same ring
next to the lifeless, battered body of Carolyn Jean Dellinger Drew.
When the call came John Latty was preparing to serve
communion at Calvary Baptist Church in Gainesville when Tracy Lee
Housel's crime spree came to Georgia. Someone motioned to him from the
wings; it was police headquarters calling. There had been a homicide.
And the deacon took up the badge and gun of his other life, investigator
for the Gwinnett County police. Latty drove from Hall County to what now
would be the bustling commuters' alley between Beaver Ruin and Indian
Trail roads near I-85. Even today, he remembers all the sights and
smells from that morning.
"I remember the temperature --- 66 degrees," Latty
recalled last week. "Beautiful, beautiful, day." He looked out at what
are now rows of apartments, and saw only this abandoned old farmstead. A
rickety country home. An old smokehouse. A weathered barn. And behind it,
the ravaged body of a middle-aged woman. Purple strangulation marks
encircled her neck. Her head and face had been beaten with a blunt
weapon. She had been raped. She was unrecognizable. But in rare cases,
police get a flood of information.
Two men driving by had seen a silver Mustang leaving
that farm early in the morning. Employees from the truck stop diner
described Housel "down to the jewelry he was wearing," Latty remembers.
Dental records matched a missing-person report that came in at 5 a.m.
that day. It was Jean Drew. Gwinnett police sent out the description of
the suspect to police departments across the nation. Six days later,
Daytona Beach police spotted a man fitting the description driving a
1981 silver Mustang. It was Tracy Lee Housel. And by the time they were
done interviewing him, police had his taped confession to the murder of
Jean Drew. But it was what he went on to say that had police departments
from across the country sending detectives to Gwinnett County.
'A bad hombre'- Tracy Lee Housel doesn't admit to his
crimes; he boasts about them. That's what Latty was counting on during
the year he spent interviewing Housel at the Gwinnett County jail.
Housel wanted to command attention, just as an FBI personality
assessment said he would.
The same report also said he was sociopathic,
an experienced killer, and self-hating for having homosexual urges. So,
Housel claimed he had been a cowboy, a cross-country truck driver, a
biker gang member. "He went to great lengths to project a macho image,"
Latty said. "He was very proud of what he did," Latty said. "He wanted
people to know he was a bad hombre, for sure." That's why, when Daytona
Beach police confronted him about the murder charge in Gwinnett, he
confessed the crime. When they told him they had warrants from Cass
County, Iowa, he told them he killed a man there, as well. Except the
man he attacked in Iowa survived and went on to testify that Housel
stabbed, beat him and left him for dead. Police learned that in a span
of six weeks, Housel had gone on a crime spree in at least four states.
It started with the slaying of a truck driver in
Texas on Feb. 20, 1985. Police reports say the driver was sodomized and
bludgeoned with a hammer. On March 31, he attacked the Iowa man. Three
days later, he raped and tried to kill a New Jersey woman. And on April
7, he killed Drew. Housel pleaded guilty to murdering Drew in a deal
with the prosecution that he hoped would spare him from the death
penalty. But before his sentencing trial, Latty met with Housel again.
This time, Housel was "very emotional," as he faced the real possibility
of execution. Latty just wanted to know how many slayings there had been.
Housel's usual braggart's facade faded. His eyes filled with tears. His
chin quivered as he told Latty: "Seventeen," through a cracking voice.
"He was very believable at that moment," Latty said. "I think that's
more than I expected to hear."
Just last year, investigators from the Los Angeles
police met with Latty and were able to close the case of a murdered
transvestite in 1985. They matched Housel --- who was living in
California before his arrest --- to the crime. California prosecutors
did not go ahead with a trial since Housel was already on Georgia's
death row.
Death penalty disputed
On April 7, 1995, the state of Georgia executed
Nicholas Lee Ingram, despite opposition from the British government.
Ingram held dual citizenship with England and the United States, as does
Tracy Lee Housel. A representative of the United Kingdom, which does not
use the death penalty, is appealing to the state Pardons and Parole
Board to spare Housel's life. Sister Helen Prejean, author of the book "Dead
Man Walking," will speak at the clemency hearing Monday.
The British government, as well as Housel's trial
attorney, Walt Britt, contend Britt was not qualified to handle the
death penalty case. Britt, a respected Gwinnett County defense attorney,
said he was just five years out of law school and made crucial errors in
the case. "There were very few people in the state of Georgia that had
actual experience defending a death penalty case," Britt said. Current
Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said Britain is wrongly
meddling in the state's affairs. "Tracy Housel is a serial killer," he
said.
At their meeting on Jan. 27, Latty said Housel had
not changed radically in 15 years. He still liked to keep his mustache
trimmed, his hair smoothed and neat. And he loved to talk about himself.
As always. Even though his attorneys ordered him to keep his mouth shut,
especially to the cop whose work helped put him on death row, Housel
welcomed the visit. The two talked for about 15 minutes and, mostly,
Housel asked Latty about old prison guards and other detectives who
worked on his case. "It was like we picked up where we left off. It's
like all those years hadn't passed," Latty said.
Before Housel was taken
back to his cell, Latty made his final plea for the names. As if in his
deacon's role, he talked to Housel about doing the right thing for once
in his life. About giving those families peace. "I feel it's my duty to
help those people," Latty said.
State Seeks Next Death Warrant
By Rhonda Cook -
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
February 27, 2002
Just two days after the execution of Alexander
Williams was called off, the state is expected to begin preparing to put
to death another convicted killer. While the new case is expected to
draw international attention, it may not be on the same scale as the
Williams case, which saw letters of protest from the European Union and
Amnesty International.
Weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court declined on
Monday to hear the appeal of Tracy Housel, Gwinnett County District
Attorney Danny Porter, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles and other
state agencies took calls and letters from the British government and
British citizens insisting that Housel be spared. Housel holds dual
citizenship with the United States and England, which does not have the
death penalty. Porter said he would ask today that a death warrant be
signed in the case, setting the time of his execution during the week of
March 12. Once a death warrant is signed, the Department of Corrections
sets the actual date and time.
If executed, Housel, 43, would be the sixth person
put to death by lethal injection since Georgia switched to that method
in October. Housel pleaded guilty to murdering Jean Drew, a woman he met
at a Lawrenceville truck stop early on April 7, 1985. It was during his
sentencing trial that he was implicated in a murder in Texas and
assaults in Iowa and New Jersey.
According to trial testimony, Housel was a 26-year-old
drifter when he met Drew in the restaurant of the truck stop. They had
dinner and then left in her car for a secluded place to have sexual
intercourse. It was there, in some woods near Indian Trail Road and
Beaver Ruin Road, that Housel strangled her, beat her with a piece of
wood and left her body, which was found later that day. Housel was
caught in Daytona Beach, Fla., driving her car and using her credit
cards, but he also had a Social Security card belonging to a truck
driver found dead in Texas. Prosecutors in Texas have said they would
bring Housel to trial if he escaped the death penalty in Georgia.
The British Consulate General in Atlanta has met with
parole board officials. Jack Straw, secretary of state for foreign and
Commonwealth affairs in London, has written board Chairman Walter Ray. "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. The United Kingdom is against the use of the
death penalty in all circumstances and is committed to work for its
abolition." Porter dismissed the efforts and criticized Britons for
getting involved in "the internal affairs of the state of Georgia"
despite the facts of the case. "Tracy Housel is a serial killer," Porter
said.
Tracy Housel Homepage
BRITON ON DEATH ROW - Tracy Housel is a 42 year-old
British citizen facing execution by lethal injection in Georgia. During
his time on death row he was held in solitary confinement for three
months and was often beaten, sometimes with an electric cattle prod. He
has just lost his final appeal in the US Supreme Court, which means that
his only hope lies with the Georgia Pardons and Parole Board.
Tracy has since had an execution date set. Without
clemency or intervention by the British Government Tracy will be
executed sometime between March 12th- 19th Amnesty are organising a
demonstration in support of Tracy Housel - please go along and show your
support on Thursday March 7th, 11am, outside Downing Street This site is
intended to serve as a resource for journalists and interested members
of the public
TRACY'S BIOGRAPHY
Tracy Housel was born in King Edwards VII Memorial
Hospital, Paget, Bermuda at 11.45 am on May 7th 1958. Housel's parents,
William Franklin Housel and Lula Mae Elkins Housel, lived in Bermuda at
the time of his birth. Lula was fourteen years old when she married
Tracy's father, Bill, who was forty three. She came from an impoverished
background in North Carolina and had a family with a long history of
health problems, including diabetes and low blood sugar. Lula herself
suffered from severe arthritis and low blood sugar. They were American
civilians and Housel's father was employed at the Kindley Air Force Base
as a sheet metal worker. At that time Bermuda was in British possession.
On February 1st, 2001, the Foreign Office confirmed Tracy was born and
remains a British national. The family left Bermuda about a year after
their son's birth.
Childhood
His childhood was spent in impoverished circumstances
in North Carolina and Columbia Heights, Rhode Island, a ruined former
mill town.The mill had moved out, and when Tracy was a child, the
neighborhood was nothing more than a "white ghetto." The Housel family
was among the poorest in the area. Children as young as ten were often
seen out on their own late at night with no parental supervision. Tracy
was no exception. Drugs and alcohol were prevalent among children and
adults. As a child, Tracy was affected byserious illness and injury
. He suffered constant headaches and fevers, for which his father
- who 'did not believe' in doctors - refused to seek medical help.
Tracy's Parents
Lula was a well-known alcoholic throughout Tracy's
childhood. A co-worker described how she drank straight alcohol from a
thermos and got drunk at work. Lula would often show up at the Legion
Hall drunk, and would frequently be asked to leave, or carried out. Bill
Housel, also an alcoholic, was violent toward Lula. They argued with
each other at the Legion Hall, often elevating into fist
fights.Witnesses at Housel's appeals described how Tracy would try to
end their fights, only to find both parents turn their anger on him.
After one such incident when he was 14, he ran to the home of one of
Lula's friends. When she called his mother, Lula responded: 'If you've
got him, you can f**king keep him. Come get his s**t.' He ended up
staying for three months, and soon after his return, left home for good.
Tracy's father Bill had a reputation for unpredictable violence. He
frequently hit his children in the head and face with his hands, and
often beat them with a belt. Tracy and his brothers often came to school
with black eyes, broken noses and bruises. One neighbor recounted a time
when another young neighborhood boy hit one of the Housel children; Bill
chased the child, caught him, and beat him.
At School
Despite such horrendous home circumstances, Tracy was
obedient and well behaved at school. Teachers were well aware of his
poverty. They describe him as a troubled child, but not a troublemaker.
His sixth grade math teacher said he was an over-achiever for his social
situation and was impressed by Tracy's efforts These teachers also
testified, however, that Tracy was in need of special help and attention
because of his troubled home life. Katherine Caroselli, who was both a
teacher and a trained social worker, testified that although never
disrespectful, Tracy just "wasn't there" in school. Irene Hutton
testified how Tracy was unfocused and unable to concentrate on his
schoolwork. She said that although he was quiet and never said much in
class, "his sad eyes spoke a lot."
As an Adult
In the early 1980s, Housel moved to Iowa, where he
formed a relationship with a widow, Robin Banks. Most of the time he was
relaxed and easy-going, and acted as a loving father to her children.
But he was also prone to sudden mood swings, when he would fail to eat
for days on end, drink and take drugs.
MEDICAL HISTORY
Tracy has a history of hypopglycemia, an endocrine
discorder, which was untreated at the time of the alleged crime, and not
mentioned in the trial. On Tracy's hypoglycemia (an abnormally large
amount of sugar in the blood), US-based human rights lawyer Clive
Stafford-Smith has said: "It certainly would have affected him,
particularly because of allegations of alcohol involved [in the case]."
Mr. Smith has also said: "It is very unlikely [in consideration, of his
medical condition] that he could have been convicted of murder [rather
than manslaughter] under British law. America does not recognize 'diminished
capacity,' which is one of the reasons that Europe will not deport
people back [to the U.S.] to face capital charges."
Childhood Trauma
Tracy was born a month premature and weighed only 3.5
pounds. He remained in an incubator after Lula's discharge from the
hospital. Tracy was sickly from birth and suffered such bad health that
the family moved to North Carolina. . Tracy's childhood, spent in
impoverished circumstances in North Carolina and Columbia Heights, Rhode
Island, a ruined former mill town, was marked by serious illness and
injury. He suffered constant headaches and fevers (one of 105 degrees),
for which his father - who 'did not believe' in doctors - refused to
seek medical help.
At the age of seven, he fell off a roof and was
knocked unconscious. Badly concussed, his pupils were dilated for
several days. Later he was concussed again when another child attacked
him with a baseball bat. Finally, at the age of 11, he sustained brain
damage after losing consciousness again in a car crash. It was not until
years after Housel's trial that his appeal lawyers, Beth Wells and
Robert McGlasson, had him examined by two mental health experts and
several leading neuro-physicians. They later testified that he suffered
from an extreme form of hypoglycaemia, which made him prone to periods
when he would lose control of his actions and became unable to
distinguish right from wrong. They added that all the available evidence
suggested it was during such a psychotic episode that he committed the
crime for which he was sentenced to death.
TRACY'S CASE
Tracy is on Death Row in Georgia. He was convicted of
the death of a woman he is alleged to have picked up from a truck stop.
In 1985 he was sentenced to death by electrocution. This was the only
crime with which he was charged. However, the jury, which had to decide
if he should live or die, heard details of other alleged offences,
although his guilt had not been established. Earlier, detectives had
repeatedly interrogated him about them as he awaited trial in the
Gwinnett County jail. After seeking advice from the FBI, they decided to
hold these interviews at night. In the jail, he was held in solitary
confinement, denied showers and exercise for more than three months, and
'punished' with an electric stun gun, at least once - according to
evidence from his fellow prisoners - while standing in water, in order
to intensify the pain. Tracy's trial lawyer, was recently qualified, and
had never handled a murder case. In later appeal hearings, he admitted
he made no attempt to ascertain the facts of Tracy's abusive background,
nor his medical state. As a child Tracy sustained severe head injuries
and has a medical condition that leaves him prone to black outs. In
advising him to plead guilty, he had deprived him of a possible defence
of insanity; had he known the full facts, Brit said, he would never have
given such advice.
Tracy's Appeal
There were two main grounds to Tracy's recent
unsuccessful appeal to the 11th Federal Circuit Court: that he had been
deprived of his constitutional right to effective legal counsel; and
that, by adducing evidence of crimes which were unproved, the
prosecution deprived him of a fair hearing over whether he should get
life or death, rendering his execution a cruel and unusual punishment.
On 18 January the three appeal judges, led by a keen advocate of the
death penalty, rejected all Tracy's arguments. He should go to the
electric chair. Although Tracy has a final recourse to the US Supreme
Court, it is extremely rare for this court to prevent an execution.
Support from the British Government
The British Foreign Office became involved in the
case upon learning of Tracey's British nationality in January 2001.
Lawyers acting for Tracy 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. Tracy's lawyers, Hugh Southey,
a barrister at Michael Mansfield's chambers in London, and Yasmine
Waljee, a solicitor at the London City law firm Lovells, have had urgent
meetings with Foreign Office officials to try to get the Government to
take unprecedented steps to save their client's life. The lawyers and
the Foreign Office have been working closely with the US-based British
barrister Clive Stafford-Smith, a renowned champion of human rights,
particularly in death penalty cases, and Reprieve
, a British charity who aim to provide effective legal representation
and humanitarian assistance to impoverished people that face the death
penalty in the USA and Caribbean.
In February, the Foreign Office said that before its
lawyers formally intervened in the cases it would continue to use
diplomatic channels to help to secure a reprieve for both men. "We are
to make diplomatic representations on behalf of Housel" the spokeswoman
said. Andie Lambe, UK director of Reprieve, described the Government's
involvement as "an historic step forward" that not only granted UK
recognition to British-American Death Row inmates but also gave
diplomatic force to the campaign to keep the men alive. A top London law
firm will shortly be writing an Amicus brief on behalf of Tracy and
Reprieve will be passing it to Parliament for signatures.
GEORGIA: Sick Briton Set for US Execution
London Observer
February 4, 2002
Tracy Housel has spent 15 years on death row for
murder. Campaigners argue that brain damage and a rare disease
contributed to the crime. Now they have learnt Housel is British, and
are pressing Robin Cook to intervene Behind the ramparts and razor wire
of the Georgia Diagnostic Prison 40 miles south of Atlanta, a brain-damaged,
mentally ill Briton waits on death row. A last and probably hopeless
appeal to the US Supreme Court is all that stands between him and the
electric chair.
Tracy Housel, 42, was persuaded to plead guilty to
murder by his lawyer, Walt Brit. The jury that sentenced him to death in
1985 heard nothing about his catastrophic childhood, when he sustained
severe head injuries, nor a rare medical condition which made him prone
to blackouts and out-of-character psychotic rages. It was also unaware
that when Housel was being interrogated by police, he was being held in
inhumane conditions, and repeatedly assaulted with an electric prod.
Despite his long incarceration, it was only last week
that the Foreign Office confirmed Housel was born and remains a British
national. In an email to Clive Stafford-Smith, the New Orleans-based
British lawyer, Mike Tiney, a senior Consular Department official, said:
'We will be seeking advice from the Consul-General in Atlanta as to
whether representations should be made at this time, and if so to whom.'
The disclosure of Housel's plight and British nationality will add to
Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's difficulties in attempting to maintain
the 'special relationship' with the United States as he travels to
Washington this week to meet the new President, George W. Bush. Cook
opposes the death penalty as passionately as Bush has espoused and
enacted it. In his 6 years as Governor of Texas, Bush was responsible
for 139 executions, far more than any governor in American history. Cook
is certain to come under heavy pressure from human rights groups to
raise the case of Housel at their meeting.
Housel is British by virtue of his birth at the King
Edward VII hospital in Bermuda, where his parents were working and where
he spent his infancy. His mother, Lula, who came from a dirt-poor
background in North Carolina, was only 14 when she married Bill Housel,
who was 43. Tracy was born the following year.
His childhood, spent in
impoverished circumstances in North Carolina and Columbia Heights, Rhode
Island, a ruined former mill town, was marked by serious illness and
injury. He suffered constant headaches and fevers, for which his father
- who 'did not believe' in doctors - refused to seek medical help. At
the age of seven, he fell off a roof and was knocked unconscious. Badly
concussed, his pupils were dilated for several days. Later he was
concussed again when another child attacked him with a baseball bat.
Finally, at the age of 11, he sustained brain damage after losing
consciousness again in a car crash.
Meanwhile, Bill and Lula became abusive alcoholics.
Witnesses at Housel's appeals described how Tracy would try to end their
fist-fights, only to find both parents turn their anger on him. After
one such incident when he was 14, he ran to the home of one of Lula's
friends. When she called his mother, Lula responded: 'If you've got him,
you can fucking keep him. Come get his shit.' He ended up staying for 3
months, and soon after his return, left home for good. In the early
1980s, Housel moved to Iowa, where he formed a relationship with a widow,
Robin Banks. Most of the time he was relaxed and easy-going, and acted
as a loving father to her children. But he was also prone to sudden mood
swings, when he would fail to eat for days on end and drink and take
drugs.
It was not until years after Housel's trial that his
appeal lawyers, Beth Wells and Robert McGlasson, had him examined by two
mental health experts and several leading neuro-physicians. They later
testified that he suffered from an extreme form of an endocrine disorder,
hypoglycaemia, which made him prone to periods when he would lose
control of his actions and became unable to distinguish right from wrong.
They added that all the available evidence suggested it was during such
a psychotic episode that he committed the crime for which he was
sentenced to death.
Aside from a single conviction for soliciting a
prostitute, he had no criminal record when in early 1985, following the
break-up of his relationship, he embarked on a violent two-week odyssey
across the United States. Police claimed he was responsible for a
catalogue of heinous crimes during this fortnight: a near-fatal knife
assault on a man in Iowa; raping and cudgeling a man to death in Texas;
forcing a woman to perform oral sex in New Jersey; and finally, the
beating and fatal strangling of Jean Drew in Gwinnett County, Georgia.
Housel was eventually arrested for her murder in Florida, when he tried
to use her credit card to buy a cowboy outfit. He confessed to the
killing, saying they had consensual sex after he picked her up at an
Atlanta truck-stop, but he had then become enraged and perpetrated his
murderous attack.
This was the only crime with which he was charged.
However, the jury, which had to decide if he should live or die, heard
details of these other alleged offences, although his guilt had not been
established. Earlier, detectives had repeatedly interrogated him about
them as he awaited trial in the Gwinnett County jail. After seeking
advice from the FBI, they decided to hold these interviews at night. In
the jail, he was held in solitary confinement, denied showers and
exercise for more than 3 months, and 'punished' with an electric stun
gun, at least once - according to evidence from his fellow prisoners -
while standing in water, in order to intensify the pain.
Housel's trial lawyer, Walt Brit, was recently
qualified, and had never handled a murder case. In later appeal hearings,
he admitted he made no attempt to ascertain the facts of Housel's
abusive background, nor his medical state. In advising him to plead
guilty, he had deprived him of a possible defence of insanity; had he
known the full facts, Brit said, he would never have given such advice.
There were two main grounds to Housel's appeal to the
11th Federal Circuit Court: that he had been deprived of his
constitutional right to effective legal counsel; and that, by adducing
evidence of crimes which were unproved, the prosecution deprived him of
a fair hearing over whether he should get life or death, rendering his
execution a cruel and unusual punishment. On 18 January the three appeal
judges, led by a keen advocate of the death penalty, rejected all
Housel's arguments. He should go to the electric chair. Although Housel
has a final recourse to the US Supreme Court, it is extremely rare for
this court to prevent an execution.
As Cook may find himself telling Bush this week, the
US Constitution, which the Supreme Court interprets, does not embody the
principles embodied by Britain's Human Rights Act. Housel's lawyer,
Robert McGlasson, said last night: 'Housel's case amounts to a human
rights abuse of serious proportions. He did not get a fair trial. The
British Government may well be his only hope.'
Cut on the Bias
LAST NIGHT TRACY HOUSEL DIED by lethal injection, in
Georgia’s death chamber, with more attention from Britain and Europe
than from the U.S.," by Susanna Cornett. But even
that creates a false impression. A biography of Housel, on a site dedicated to having the death
penalty stayed, makes it clear: "They (Housel's parents) were American
civilians (his mother from North Carolina) and Housel's father was
employed at the Kindley Air Force Base as a sheet metal worker. At that
time Bermuda was in British possession. On February 1st, 2001, the
Foreign Office confirmed Tracy was born and remains a British national.
"The family left Bermuda about a year after their son's birth."
So Housel was born to American parents and lived all
but one of his 43 years in the United States, but on that basis he was
considered a British citizen by those who wanted to use his case as an
opportunity for protest. And it was a sizable protest: The Guardian: "An
extraordinary and unprecedented alliance of relatives, lawyers,
campaigners, British politicians and European diplomats trooped into the
board offices in Atlanta in a final attempt to save Housel's life." The
BBC: "The Council of Europe's general secretary Walter Schwimmer said he
"deeply deplored" the fact the US had refused to commute Housel's death
sentence to a prison term."Once again, the USA has decided to go ahead
with the death penalty, despite my own plea and those made by the United
Kingdom, which, as a member of the Council of Europe, has already banned
the death penalty." SkyNews (which refers to Housel as "Briton"): "Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw phoned Georgia's governor in an unsuccessful bid to
have the sentence commuted."
The reporters were aggrieved at Georgia's response,
and put a spin on their reporting to get the point across: "They (the
petitioners mentioned above) were armed with an indirect appeal from
Tony Blair addressed to Vera Baird, the MP for Redcar. It did not
impress the five-strong panel (the state parole board), who
traditionally give no reasons for their decision. No voting figures were
released. "The hearing was closed to the public and media but witnesses
said the board members appeared to soften just once: when they were
shown two christening gowns crocheted by Housel for his lawyer's twin
babies."
And what was it that Housel did, anyway, to cause
such hard-heartedness on Georgia's part, so hard that they were almost
unmoved by hand-crocheted christening gowns? "Housel has admitted raping
and strangling 46-year-old Jeanne Drew during a two-week homicidal spree
in 1985... " "...and also allegedly raped and killed
a man in Texas, slashed another man's throat in Iowa and sexually
assaulted a woman in New Jersey."
The whole episode is a good example of how the media
selects information and wording to advance certain causes. Fortunately,
Georgia did know the whole truth, gave the protests the consideration
they deserved, and responded, in my judgment, precisely right: "A board
member, Dr Eugene Walker, heard the delegation of EU consular officials
plead that execution was wrong, then said: "You know, you have strong
sentiments against the death penalty. You've got to know we have strong
sentiments for it and it's part of our law."" That's right. It's a part
of our law, and it's not Britain's business, or Europe's, no matter how
it's spun. "At 7:28 p.m., Housel became the sixth person Georgia has put
to death by lethal injection."
Housel v. State,
355 S.E.2d 651 (Ga. 1987) (Direct Appeal).
This is a death penalty case. Appellant, Tracy Lee
Housel, was indicted in Gwinnett County on charges of murder, rape,
motor vehicle theft and three counts of financial-transaction-card theft.
After a jury was selected, Housel pled guilty to murder and motor
vehicle theft. The state did not pursue the remaining charges, but
continued to seek the death penalty on the murder count. A jury trial
was conducted on the question of sentence, and Housel was sentenced to
death. He now appeals.
The crime occurred April 7, 1985. The defendant was
indicted on June 4, 1985. The jury selection began January 28, 1986, and
the jury reached its verdict on February 7, 1986. A motion for new trial
was filed March 10, 1985. An amendment thereto was filed July 22. The
motion was heard on August 1 and September 26, 1986, and was denied on
the latter date. The case was docketed in this court on November 25,
1986, and was orally argued February 9, 1987.
Evidence was presented at the sentencing trial that,
during a two-month period in early 1985, Housel killed a man in Texas,
stabbed a man in Iowa, sodomized a woman in New Jersey, and, finally,
killed the woman in Gwinnett County, Georgia, for whose murder the
defendant received the death sentence in this case. Housel's pre-trial
statements concerning these crimes were admitted in evidence. In
addition, the surviving Iowa and New Jersey victims testified, as did
law enforcement officers from Texas, Florida and Georgia.
Housel left his wife in California in October of
1984, his marriage having unraveled as a result of his "being on the
road" all the time. A month later Housel began living with a woman in
Council Bluffs, Iowa.
In February, 1985, Housel was at a truck stop in
Spring, Texas, "laid over trying to get a load." Housel stated, "We were
all in our leathers, dressed more or less like a rowdy little bike club,
just raising Hell and discontent." He met a man named Troy, who had a
quantity of cocaine and was trying to sell it. Troy got drunk, and
Housel helped him out to his truck and went back to the bar. He learned
(he said) that "a couple of guys [were] planning on robbing [Troy] of
all of his cocaine," but after he told them not to, they "left him alone."
However, Housel himself "was wanting, I guess, a little bit more cocaine,"
so he climbed into Troy's cab "just [to] fix my nose again and go on
about my business." Troy woke up and accused Housel of trying to steal
his cocaine. When Troy grabbed him by the throat, Housel picked up a
hammer and hit him on the head eight or nine times.
Housel took Troy's cocaine and a few other things,
including a CB radio, a stereo, and Troy's identification, put them into
his bag, and drove the truck to Beaumont, Texas, where he left it. He
stated that Troy was still breathing when he left Spring, but that he
died somewhere between Spring and Beaumont. Troy's body was found in the
sleeper of his cab, seven miles from Beaumont, Texas, on February 20,
1985. He was nude from the waist down, and had been anally sodomized.
On March 29, 1985, Housel was back in Council Bluffs,
Iowa. He met a man named Gary at a truck stop and asked him for a ride
to Des Moines, where perhaps he could get a job. Gary told him he would
take him as far as Atlantic, which was about halfway. They got into
Gary's car and drove. Gary testified that when they reached the Atlantic
exit, Housel pulled out a knife and told him to drive on. A couple of
exits later, Housel told Gary to pull off the interstate and park. Then,
Gary testified, Housel demanded his wallet, and stabbed him as he
reached for it.
Housel stated that Gary made a gesture which he
interpreted as a homosexual advance, and he "freaked;" he pulled out his
knife and began stabbing him. Gary denied making any sexual advances. In
any event, Gary got out of his car, and Housel pushed him down a ravine.
When Gary climbed out, Housel stabbed him several more times and threw
him back in. Gary had thrown away his keys, but Housel found a spare key
in the console and drove the car to New Jersey. Credit card receipts
found in Housel's belongings after he was arrested showed that he had
used Gary's credit cards in Iowa, Illinois and Pennsylvania on March 30
and April 1.
On April 2, 1985, a young woman named Renee met
Housel at the apartment of a friend of hers in Phillipsburg, New Jersey.
Housel introduced himself as "Troy." About 11:30 p.m., Renee announced
that she was going home. "Troy" (who Renee identified at trial as the
defendant) offered to escort her to her car. Once there, Housel entered
the car and began to strangle her, and then forced her to orally
sodomize him. Telling her she was too nice to kill, he took all her
money and left. Renee testified that she had marks on her neck from
being strangled that did not finally disappear until late that summer.
Next, Housel drove Gary's car to Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he
abandoned it. He caught a ride from there to Lawrenceville, Georgia.
After "drinking all night," Housel met the victim in
this case, Jean Drew, in the early morning hours of April 7, 1985, at a
Lawrenceville truck stop. Housel said they had sex, and then went for a
ride in her car, a silver-gray Mustang. They parked in an open area
behind some woods, just off Beaver Ruin road in Gwinnett County.
According to Housel, they were having sex again in the back seat of her
car when he got the urge to spit. Unfortunately, his spit hit her window.
She began yelling at him, and he lost his temper and began striking her
with his fists. (There was blood all over the inside of the car when it
was recovered.) They got out of the car. Her nose was bleeding, and she
spit blood on him. Then he really hit her, and she fell "like a ton of
bricks." He got on his knees and strangled her, and then he picked up a
stick and beat her face to a "bloody pulp." Housel left her lying there,
and drove her car to Daytona Beach, Florida, where, using her credit
cards, he stayed several days prior to being arrested.
Jean Drew's body was found later that morning, nude
from the waist down. Her head was "extensively traumatized and
disfigured." There were "several lesions about the neck area," and there
was "blood smeared on both hands."
The pathologist who conducted the autopsy testified
that the victim was still alive at the time of strangulation, and that
the "[strangulation] force was fairly long in duration given the amount
of ... contusion in the area of the neck ...; the [hyoid] bone ... was
broken ... and there was digging of fingernails not just into the skin
and left in place, but actually tearing through the skin which is
another indication of a fair degree of struggle on the part of the
decedent." Several of the victim's teeth had been knocked out. Her mouth
was cut. Her skull was crushed in three places.
The pathologist testified that because of the
extensive trauma to the head, it was impossible to determine how many
times the victim had been struck. Cause of death was "a combination of
multiple head trauma and asphyxiation by strangulation."
