The Honourable Mr. Philip Lader
The American Embassy
24 Grosvenor Square
London, WIA IAE

6th November 2000

Dear Mr. Ambassador,

I am sorry to trouble you with a matter when I know you have so many important affairs to attend to, but it concerns the case of Chantal McCorkle, a British citizen who is serving 24 years in a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida. I have recently met her mother at the House of Lords, with Chantal's English lawyer, Andrew McCooey, who has visited her in prison.

The case concerns me greatly. As I understand it, two years ago, Chantal and her American husband were convicted of fraud and laundering money offences. The circumstances appear to be that her husband's company marketed videos on U.S. television and those videos were misleading insofar as they pretended to show that Mr. and Mrs. McCorkle were the owners of property in the videos which was only hired property. There may be more to the case, but I think that is the gist of it.

Chantal was advised to go to trial as there had never been a similar prosecution and she was told that she as the wife would have any proceedings against her dropped. But to the surprise of everyone, the case proceeded to trial and she and her husband were convicted. They both received 24 years without parole, plus confiscation of all their assets. Chantal was 29 when convicted and her earliest release date will be 2020.

I cannot imagine that it was the prosecution's intention that a young British woman with no previous convictions who was simply helping her husband with his business should suffer imprisonment for 24 years for an economic offence of this nature. Naturally, Chantal is grief-stricken, as indeed is her mother. She is divorcing her husband and has no relations in the U.S. All her family are back here in England. I know this case has caused widespread concern in England. Recently NBC interviewed her mother in England and Chantal in prison and intend to make an hour long documentary on the case later this year.

My purpose in writing to you personally (as a former Leader of the House of Lords, Cabinet Minister and the senior Knight of the Garter) is to urge clemency for this young woman and anything you could do to achieve this would be very much appreciated by an those concerned for Chantal's life and well-being.

Yours sincerely,

The Earl of Longford