Last woman to be hanged in the UK receives posthumous pardon
Ruth Ellis, who had the unfortunate honour of being the last-ever woman to be hanged to death in the UK, has been granted a conditional posthumous pardon.
King Charles has granted the pardon to Ellis, who was hanged in 1955 after she was convicted of murdering her abusive partner.
England’s deputy Prime Minister, David Lammy, revealed that the sentence will be commuted from execution to life in prison.
Lammy explained, “While the pardon does not claim she was innocent of killing David Blakely, it replaces the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment to recognise a profound injustice in this exceptional case profound injustice in this exceptional case”.
The Ministry of Justice also weighed in on the matter, deeming the conditional pardon “an act of mercy recognising the historic injustice of the death penalty in this exceptional case”.
Ellis, who was from Rhyl, Denbighshire, fired five shots at her lover outside of The Magdala pub in Hampstead, London. Throughout her tumultuous relationship with the man, she had been punched in the stomach by Blakely during an argument, which had led to a miscarriage.
She was arrested immediately by an off-duty policeman, who heard her say, “I am guilty, I’m a little confused.”
However, during her trial, she was asked only a single question; on the stand, she explained that it was “obvious when I shot him that I intended to kill him,” which led to a guilty verdict that took the jury only 20 minutes to reach.
Labour MP Pam Cox explained that the case served as a “haunting reminder of a time when our justice system ignored the realities of domestic abuse and coercive control.”
In light of the new pardon, Ellis’ granddaughter Laura Enston celebrated the news, sharing, “The shadow of Ruth’s execution has fallen across two generations. We have carried shame that was never ours to bear.”
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