Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain, has been posthumously pardoned following a campaign by her family.
Ellis, a 28-year-old mother of two, was hanged at Holloway Prison on 13 July 1955 for the murder of her lover, the race car driver David Blakely.
Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, in response to a question by Labour MP Pam Cox, deputy prime minister David Lammy said: “I have the honour to say that His Majesty the King has accepted our advice to grant Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom, a conditional pardon. While the pardon does not claim that 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.”
He also paid tribute to Ellis’ grandchildren, Laura Enston and Stephen Beard, who were watching in the House of Commons Gallery.
Pam Cox said that Ellis’ case was “a haunting reminder of a time when our justice system ignored the realities of domestic abuse and coercive control”.
Born Ruth Neilson in Wales in 1926, Ellis worked as an escort and nightclub manager in London.
Last year, her grandchildren submitted an appeal for a pardon, arguing that Blakely was abusive to her and a modern understanding of the impact of abuse would have resulted in her being convicted of manslaughter.