LAW student Vicky Young will be swapping the academic life at Warwick University for the grim reality of death row in the USA when she takes up an internship in the summer.

Miss Young, 20, of Farmhouse Drive, Chippenham, needs to raise between £2,000 and £3,000 to spend eight weeks in the USA working on death row cases.

She was a pupil at Kings Lodge and Sheldon schools and is now a second year student studying European Law and she hopes to work alongside defence attorneys in the United States to help people consigned to death row.

She said: "The underfunding of defence in the US means it will be a voluntary internship, whereby I will be doing the work for free and am expected to fund myself when I am over there."

Miss Young said she is very interested in the law and human rights issues.

While many of her fellow students have opted for internships in commercial law, she was inspired by a university forum on the death penalty in the USA and around the world.

"The US justice system is shocking," she said. "Racism is rife and most of the people on death row are poor and black.''

She has raised about £1,500 to date and is planning some sponsored events to generate the rest.

Anyone keen to help fund the trip should contact Ms Young by e-mail at v.c.young@warwick.ac.uk.