Last woman to be hanged in the UK pardoned 70 years on

• His Majesty the King has granted Ruth Ellis a conditional pardon following the Deputy Prime Minister’s advice.
• The decision reflects the exceptional circumstances of the case, including evidence of domestic abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour that may have been understood differently today.
• The pardon recognises that, under modern law and understanding, the outcome may have been different.

Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in United Kingdom, has been granted a conditional pardon by His Majesty the King following the Deputy Prime Minister’s advice – an act of mercy recognising the historic injustice of the death penalty in this exceptional case.

Ruth Ellis shot and killed David 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 responsibility was profoundly shaped by domestic abuse, trauma and circumstances that were never properly recognised at her trial.

Under modern law, it is possible that Ruth 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.

As the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom, Ruth Ellis’s sentence is an exceptional case – and replacing it with one of life imprisonment takes into account the historic injustice of the death penalty in this particular instance. The government hopes today’s decision brings a measure of peace to her family.

Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy said:

For 70 years, the family of Ruth Ellis have fought for her story to be heard.

We cannot change what happened seventy years ago. But we can recognise that this was an exceptional case.

Today’s conditional pardon is an act of mercy. We hope it brings some measure of peace to Ruth’s family.

Laura Enston, Granddaughter of Ruth Ellis, said:

Today, justice has finally been done for our grandmother, Ruth Ellis – the last woman to be hanged in England in 1955. 

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. We hope Ruth’s story serves as a lasting reminder that the justice system must reckon with the abuse that drives women to the edge - and must never be afraid to acknowledge when it has got things wrong.” 

The law has changed over the decades and now better reflects our improved understanding of the impact of intimate partner violence, including coercive and controlling behaviour, on individual’s subsequent actions – abuse that is disproportionately suffered by women.

Minister for Victims and Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Catherine Atkinson said:

For seventy years, Ruth Ellis’s family have carried the weight of what happened to her. Today we recognise the exceptional circumstances surrounding her case and the impact they had on her life.

I want to thank her grandchildren for their determination in bringing this case forward, and for making sure her story was finally heard.

Further information:

• The Royal Prerogative of Mercy is one of the historic prerogative powers of the Crown and is exercised by His Majesty the King on ministerial advice. A conditional pardon does not affect the conviction itself but substitutes the sentence imposed by the court with a lesser penalty. In this case, it replaces the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment.
• The government reached the decision that a conditional pardon to Ruth Ellis is exceptional and justified because of the circumstances of the case and that imposition of the death penalty would not have been sustained under modern law.
• The application was submitted by four of Ruth Ellis’s grandchildren.