Last woman to be hanged in Britain Ruth Ellis granted conditional pardon

Last woman to be hanged in Britain Ruth Ellis granted conditional pardon Elli's grandchildren had called for a posthumous pardon for their grandmother, the last woman to be hanged in Britain in 1955 after being found guilty of murdering her lover David Blakely The last woman hanged in the United Kingdom will be granted a conditional pardon, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has said. Ruth Elli's grandchildren had called for a posthumous pardon for their grandmother, who was hanged in 1955. She was found guilty of murdering her lover David Blakely. Standing in for Keir Starmer at PMQs, Mr Lammy - who is also the Justice Secretary - told the Commons: "I have the honour to say that His Majesty the King has accepted our advice to grant Ruth Ellis a conditional pardon, the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom. “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.” He said her grandchildren were sitting in the Commons' public gallery and added: "We hope this brings a measure of peace to Ruth Ellis's family, who have carried the weight of what happened to her for over 70 years." Her granddaughter Laura Enston told the BBC in October: "We are determined to do what we can to right this historic injustice and honour not only Ruth but all victims of domestic abuse who have been let down by the criminal justice system." Speaking today, she added: “This pardon does not undo what happened 71 years ago. It does not restore the lives that were broken - the children left behind, the years lost. But it says, formally and finally, that Ruth should not have been executed; that the justice system failed her. That acknowledgement matters profoundly to our family. “Ruth was a victim of sustained and brutal abuse. Her children - our mother and uncle - never recovered. My uncle took his own life; my mother's trauma left her unable to be the parent we needed. The shadow of Ruth's execution has fallen across two generations. We have carried shame that was never ours to bear. “We are deeply grateful to the Justice Secretary for having the courage to act." Ellis shot and killed Blakely on 10 April 1955. She was convicted of murder after a trial and executed on 13 July 1955. No reprieve was granted, and no appeal was lodged at the time. The application for a pardon was brought by four of Ruth Ellis’s grandchildren. The application presented that her case was profoundly shaped by domestic abuse, trauma and circumstances that were never properly recognised at her trial. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said, under modern law, it is possible that Ellis could have argued the partial defences of loss of control or diminished responsibility applied to her - defences that might have reduced her conviction from murder to manslaughter, and which could have been considered by a jury had the case been heard today.