Our letter to America: free Kenny Richey

The Reid twins endorsed the Make Poverty History campaign, but a strict Fife upbringing and six years on and off the dole during the early 1980s have made them suspicious of charity for its own sake.

"Political action and justice are the only way you'll make lasting changes," insists Charlie Reid, taking a break from rehearsing for the band's first gigs since January. Human rights and the treatment of death-row prisoners are at the forefront of his thoughts just now, as the Proclaimers prepare to join a line-up that includes American rocker and veteran death-penalty agitator Steve Earle and comedians Mark Thomas and Stewart Lee.

The venue is Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, the date June 5, and the cause Reprieve, the human rights charity founded by lawyer Clive Stafford Smith and whose client list includes eight Guantanamo Bay prisoners and Edinburgh-born Kenny Richey, sentenced to death in 1987 after being convicted of murdering two-year-old Cynthia Collins by setting fire to her mother's apartment in Ohio.

"My brother and I have always maintained that if someone asks us a straight question we would give them a straight answer," says Charlie. "There have been campaigns we've been asked to associate with, I've felt uncomfortable and didn't get involved in. But I never felt uncomfortable with this one. I feel very strongly about the work Reprieve does and I think the type of people who get involved with it are unafraid of putting their head above the wall - guys like ourselves, and certainly people we admire like Steve Earle."

The Proclaimers' songs remain ambiguous about their spiritual convictions and the twins are reluctant to discuss them in interviews, but Craig has described the message of their gospel cover I Want To Be A Christian, as not "I can totally believe in it" but "I would like to totally believe in it". Still, his brother maintains, they cannot abide a Christianity that demands a life for a life.

"It's easy to be in favour of an end to children starving," he says. "It's harder to say, when you take an ethical look at the world, are you for the death sentence or against it? I'm against it. I can understand that if someone did anything to a member of your family you might instinctively want to kill them. But I don't think it's the job of the state or the justice system to condemn people to death. It's not effective and I don't think that in America's case their high level of homicide endorses it.

"There's no comfort in imagining innocent people sent to jail for life or a death sentence without being completely convinced they committed the crime. If you're going to call yourself a civilised country and condemn a man to death row, you should at least have compelling evidence he was guilty in the first place. And I don't think the prosecutors in America ever did that with Kenny Richey."

The twins have met Stafford Smith several times and discussed the possibility of visiting Richey in prison, while making plain their concerns over America's detention of prisoners outside of legal jurisdiction.

"We'd like to go," says Charlie. "Clive has sounded us out about it. I can't say we definitely will go, but I can say we definitely back this concert and the wider implications it has for everything going on in Guantanamo."

The brothers' last album, Restless Soul, and the song DIY displayed their virulent opposition to the invasion of Iraq and concerns about the "war on terror". The anger is noticeable in Charlie's voice as he continues: "These are men being held without trial, without proper legal representation away from the world's eyes. And what that says about a nation at war, in my opinion, is very questionable. I think we have put ourselves in deep water and there's been a grave overreaction to events in the past few years.

"It's very difficult to see how Britain and America can extricate themselves from what has been brought on us as a result of the invasion of Iraq. I believe the whole thing's tied up with and comes from the sense of an eye for an eye, but it doesn't seem to solve anything and in the case of Kenny Richey and many other wrongly convicted prisoners given death sentences, it makes me very uncomfortable. And I think that if you're asked to help and you believe strongly that this is wrong then you should do something about it."

So the brothers are fired up for this London performance and promise an acoustic set of old favourites, "a couple of new things and maybe a few things we feel might be appropriate to the occasion and that we hope people identify with". The Globe concert is one of several shows the pair have lined up in a selective schedule that also takes in the Burns an' a' That festival in Ayr this Saturday and T in the Park.

"Festivals are like part-time gigs," explains Charlie. "It's not like being on tour when you've got an album out and you're pretty much away from home all the time, so it's a lot easier on the family and everybody else. Craig's got four kids, I've got three and a couple of guys in the band have families as well, so it does affect how you view touring, no doubt about it. But if you want to be in a band, then you have to be away playing gigs, that's just how it works."

Two of Scotland's most prominent nationalists, the twins repudiate the idea of their biggest hit, I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) becoming Scotland's national anthem, with Reid advocating Burns's A Man's a Man for a' That instead.

"It's certainly my favourite song that I consider appropriate as an anthem and the fact that it doesn't really mention Scotland is neither here nor there. At its egalitarian, humanitarian core it's an internationalist song that sees humanity as brothers with the aspiration that we are brother and sister rather than split down the lines of my country versus your country. As a philosopher and political thinker, Burns was way ahead of his time. I think that song is almost more relevant now and I genuinely hope people recognise that Burns is the greatest Scottish artist and greatest Scot of all time. "We've been asked to appear at the Burns festival a couple of times and we just haven't been able to fit it in. I'm a massive Burns fan, but I'm not such a fan of the Burns industry, to be honest. I've been to a few Burns suppers over the years and I've got nothing against them, it's just sad when a great artist becomes institutionalised. I really appreciate what this festival's organisers have done over the past few years, though, trying to open it up to new ideas, viewing Burns in an international context and as a songwriter as much as a poet. I wouldn't say our participation feels overdue, it just feels like an event we would always get involved in."

Between their festival commitments, the brothers will be grabbing any opportunity to watch the World Cup, following a season of envy for Hibernian fans. "When I look at Edinburgh I see a booming city and all the potential if offers," sighs Charlie. "I wonder why an Edinburgh Leith guy like Tom Farmer can own this club for 16 years and not see the potential that Vladimir Romanov saw in a few weeks and then realised in a year. And I think Hearts should be congratulated for what they've done, though I wouldn't want Hibs to do it that way. I want Hibs to have a steadier investment and concentrate more on younger players and facilities.

"Unfortunately, Hearts have streaked ahead and unless Hibs find the finance, unless Tom Farmer brings in a business partner, finds the money himself or sells on to someone who really wants to do something, then Hearts will continue to stay ahead. I would hope Farmer and the Hibs board look at them and realise there was always potential in Edinburgh. The fact that it took a Lithuanian a few months to sort it out makes me a little concerned that the Hibs owners have no vision, in which situation you're always going to be second to the opposition, I'm afraid."

The Proclaimers - onstage, on death row and on the terraces, still standing up for what they believe.

The Proclaimers are performing at the Burns and A' That festival at Wellington Square, Ayr, on Saturday May 27. Call 01292 290300.

They perform at Reprieve at Shakespeare's Globe, London, on Monday June 5. Tickets cost £25-£45 and are available from 020 7401 9919/29.

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