A NORTH-EAST MP has held talks with the Foreign Secretary in an attempt to save a British man on Death Row in the US.

Former barrister Vera Baird, MP for Redcar, east Cleveland, asked Jack Straw to help save the life of Tracy Housel, who has been waiting to die by lethal injection in Georgia for the past 16 years because he beat a woman to death.

But he also has a medical condition and severe brain damage, which Mrs Baird says means that his responsibility for the killing was either obliterated, or substantially diminished.

Mrs Baird said that Mr Straw had written to the governor of Georgia and is prepared to make further representations to help save Mr Housel.

"He knew a lot about the case. We told him more and he emphasised his support," said Mrs Baird.

"He met Mr Housel's mother and was reassuring and charming to her, though he made clear that he cannot predict the outcome."

"To put this man to death would be a grave miscarriage of justice. There is no doubt that he will still have to spend a considerable part of the rest of his life in prison.

"The governor of Georgia, or the US President, must show this man some mercy and commute the death sentence.

"His mother is in England to appeal to Tony Blair to use his influence with President Bush to save her son."