Ruth Ellis, the last woman to have been executed via hanging in the UK in 1955, has been granted a conditional pardon posthumously in light of new evidence.
The 28-year-old woman killed her partner David Blakely, a racing car driver, after the pair had been together for two years. It has now been revealed that Ellis was a victim of domestic abuse, coercive and controlling behaviour.
The woman’s four grandchildren filed the request for pardon stating that the circumstances involving trauma, abuse and coercion were never recognised at her trial.
Following the new findings, the UK’s Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy requested that King Charles III grant a conditional pardon, which the King approved.
One of Ellis’s granddaughter Laura Enston said that pardon does not change anything that happened 71 years ago and it doesn’t bring the dead back as well; however, it now sets the facts straight that the justice system failed Ruth.
She added, “The pardon acknowledges that Ruth should not have been executed.”
According to British law, the conditional pardon does not affect the conviction itself but changes the sentence with a lesser severe punishment. In Ruth’s case, the death penalty has been reduced by life imprisonment.
She was the last woman to have been hanged in England. Capital punishment for murder was suspended in 1965 and permanently abolished for all civil crimes in the United Kingdom in 1969.
2026-07-08 19:34:00
