Ruth Ellis Granted Posthumous Conditional Pardon 61 Years After Hanging
The pardon replaces Ellis’s death sentence with life imprisonment, while ministers say the move recognises a profound injustice and does not clear her conviction.
- On Wednesday, July 8, 2026, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy announced that King Charles III granted a conditional pardon to Ruth Ellis, replacing her 1955 death sentence with life imprisonment.
- Ellis, a nightclub manageress, was hanged at Holloway Prison on July 13, 1955, following her conviction for murdering her abusive partner, David Blakely, outside the Magdala pub in Hampstead.
- The Ministry of Justice acknowledged that Ellis's responsibility was "profoundly shaped by domestic abuse," recognizing the trial failed to consider circumstances that led her to shoot Blakely four times on Easter Sunday 1955.
- Granddaughter Laura Enston stated, "Today, justice has finally been done for our grandmother," noting the pardon formally acknowledges the justice system failed Ellis 71 years ago.
- Officials described the decision as "an act of mercy recognising the historic injustice of the death penalty," a move intended to provide peace to a family that campaigned for over 70 years.
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The last woman executed in the United Kingdom, Ruth Ellis, was pardoned postum, announced the British government, acknowledging that the woman was the victim of "deep injustice." Grace comes at 71 years after Ellis was hanged for killing herself...
More than 70 years have passed since the last woman sentenced to death in Britain was executed. At the time, Ruth Ellis, 26, had confessed to murdering her lover. Now King Charles is pardoning her posthumously.
Britain's King Charles III has granted a posthumous partial pardon to Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in British history, Justice Secretary David Lammy announced in Parliament on Wednesday. Ellis was executed in 1955 for the murder of her partner, whom she shot dead.
What Ruth Ellis' Historic Pardon Really Means—And Why Her Conviction Still Stands
Ruth Ellis has received a historic posthumous conditional pardon more than 70 years after becoming the last woman to be executed in Britain. But the decision does not erase her murder conviction, and that distinction lies at the heart of why the pardon is so significant. The pardon acknowledges that Ellis was sentenced to death at a time when the criminal justice system failed to recognise the impact of domestic abuse and coercive control. Today…
Because she shot her partner, Ruth Ellis was executed in 1955. More than 70 years later, the British government recognized the mildening circumstances that had been passed over at that time and pardoned Ellis posthumously.
After 20 minutes of consultation, the jury delivered its verdict in 1955. The judge had given clear instructions beforehand.
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