Briton faces New Year execution

The Supreme Court could overturn the decision

A Briton convicted of rape and murder in the US will be executed early next year, 15 years after he was put on Death Row.

John "Jackie" Elliot is due to die by lethal injection on 4 February for killing a 19-year old woman in the mid 1980s, an appeal court has ruled.

The Suffolk-born man's only hopes of survival are if the US Supreme Court overthrows the decision or if he is spared the death penalty as an act of clemency.

The Texas Court of Appeal ruled that the 42-year-old should die next year following a legal fight over his case stretching back to his conviction in San Antonio in January 1987.

Elliot claims he was convicted on the basis of evidence from police informers covering their guilt.

Elliot's lawyer said he has been denied funding for forensic tests that could prove his innocence.

Texan record

If the execution goes ahead, the son of an American serviceman will be the first Briton to be executed in the US since Tracy Housel, who was put to death in Georgia last March.

Tracy Housel was the last Briton executed in US

Reprieve, a UK charity which aims to assist those facing the death penalty, hopes the British Government will intervene and ask US authorities to spare Elliot's life.

But even with the support of Tony Blair, an appeal for clemency could fall on deaf ears.

Texan authorities executed Mexican Javier Suarez Medina, despite a personal intervention by the Mexican president Vincente Fox.

Texas has carried out more executions than any other US state since the death sentence was reintroduced in America in 1977.

The current total stands at 285, including 13 juveniles and two women.

US president George W Bush rubber-stamped 139 executions, more than any other American governor, during his six-year tenure as Governor of Texas.

Elliot was born at Bentwaters Air Force Base, near Ipswich, in March 1960 to American parents.