Ex-racehorse owner Maharaj to spend life in Florida jail after plea for clemency denied

A Briton convicted of a double murder he says he did not commit will spend the rest of his life in jail after officials in Florida denied his request for clemency  last night.

Former self-made millionaire Krishna Maharaj, who was once the second biggest racehorse owner in the UK, has always protested his innocence over the Florida murders and the British government supports his claims.

He spent 15 years on Death Row before his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2002.

Yesterday, Florida governor Charlie Crist and the state clemency board denied Maharaj's request for clemency, his last hope of freedom.

The family of the murder victims, Derrick and Duane Moo Young, pleaded tearfully with the panel to deny 68-year-old Maharaj's request.

But hundreds of supporters, including several high-profile UK politicians, are convinced Maharaj is innocent.

Conservative MP Peter Bottomley, a supporter of Maharaj, said: 'Everyone knows about Louise Woodward, who was white, female and young. Mr Maharaj is black, British and old and does not have the glamour. But his case is even stronger.'

Former attorney general Sir Nicholas Lyell has said: 'There are real reasons for thinking that he may have been framed; that crucial evidence about the principal prosecution witness may not have been disclosed - indeed, was not disclosed; that he was inadequately represented; that the case was handled by a judge who in the middle of the case was arrested and subsequently disbarred.

'And that there are real reasons to think that this is a grave miscarriage of justice, which one would hope can be put right.'

Maharaj was sentenced to 25 years to life for killing Derrick Moo Young, and given a death sentence for the murder of Moo Young's son Duane, 23, in a Miami hotel. This was commuted to life imprisonment in 2002.

Maharaj's case has attracted major political support - 300 politicians have signed a petition calling for him to face a retrial, and senior members of Gordon Brown's cabinet,  including Jack Straw and Harriet Harman, have backed the cause.

The Foreign Office spent months looking in the conviction of the Londoner, and concluded that there was 'prima facie evidence of a miscarriage of justice'.

Five alibi witnesses place Maharaj 30 miles from the murder - but not one was called to testify at his trial. The trial itself saw the judge led away in handcuffs on the third day for taking bribes in another case.

Now penniless and suffering from diabetes, Maharaj was once a self-made millionaire living in Peckham, south London. He started out driving trucks before setting up a successful fruit-importing business that funded his horse-racing obsession. One of his horses finished ahead of the Queen's to win at Royal Ascot in 1974.