Ross Smith, One Hell of a Way to Spend Your Holiday, Belfast News Letter (Northern Ireland), July 25, 2003.

Law student Steven McQuitty is among thousands of people to fly out of Northern Ireland for a foreign trip this summer.

But not many of them will be spending their holidays on death row.

The 22 year old Jordanstown student signed up for a three month internship with Reprieve UK, an organisation which campaigns against the death penalty.

And he is now at work among some of America's most notorious jails helping prisoners facing the ultimate sentence.

Steven is based in New Orleans at the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Centre, which provides representation and support to people charged with or convicted of capital offences.

"I've always had an interest in human rights issues, and I'll never have the chance to do something like this over a long summer again," said Steven.

Students from universities including Harvard and Yale have formed the 11 strong team of interns tackling a number of high profile cases.

"We do various things, from quite mundane office work, to quite exciting work such as drafting motions for the courts and interviewing clients," Steven said.

"I actually had the opportunity to travel to Florida for two days last week to see a client who has just had his death sentence commuted to life without parole."

The prisoner, Krishna Maharaj, is a British citizen, who, among his business interests bred horses in Ireland. He was convicted in 1987 of shooting two men in a Miami hotel room.

Steven said: "I was reading his file and I believe he is clearly innocent. He was framed for something he didn't do.

"I haven't been to death row yet, but I would imagine I will have the chance to speak to somebody there before the end of the summer."

Steven has worked with a solicitors' office in Portadown, and is well used to stepping into Maghaberry to see clients.

But that was nothing compared to a trip to Angola jail in Louisiana to meet prisoners who have been behind bars for more than 25 years.

"It's a horrible place," said Steven. "It's really tragic. Here life without parole literally means life without parole.

"I was talking to guys who are in their seventies and it really makes you sick. The state continues to punish them for something they did in 1950.

"It's a strange place here, and it was a completely shocking experience.

"I've visited Maghaberry on numerous occasions, but it really is a different world here.

"They still have people working under the gun, out in the field on a chain gang. It hasn't changed in 200 years.

"I was really upset by that experience. It seems to me that the world has gone mad here.

"There's no issue of rehabilitation, it's all about punishment. They just want to throw away the key and don't care what happens when you go inside."

Steven returns to complete his course in September. He then hopes to go to the bar in Belfast, and work in criminal defence.

And he has also hatched a plan to set up a Reprieve office in Ireland, to help encourage other students to take up internships similar to his.

"There's a need to raise awareness," he said. "It really is so shocking to see the conditions, see the corruption and the racism in the system."