Mr Straw's most recent intervention was on 30 January when he contacted the chairman of the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole to urge them tocommutethedeathsentenceto a prison term and reiterate Britain's opposition to capital punishment.
The Ashcroft campaign says Mr Carnahan is a raging socialist, guilty of campaign-finance scandals and soft on crime (he once agreed tothe pope's request tocommute a deathsentence).