US EditionFamily of last woman to be hanged in Britain seek posthumous pardon
Ruth Ellis's grandchildren argue she was abused and lacked a fair defense in 1955, seeking a pardon to address historic injustice and raise awareness of domestic abuse victims.
- The grandchildren of Ruth Ellis have formally asked Justice Secretary David Lammy for a conditional posthumous pardon, seeking legal redress for the last woman to be hanged in Britain.
- On Easter Sunday, 1955 Ellis shot David Blakely dead outside The Magdala pub in Hampstead, London after a tumultuous relationship involving infidelity, an aborted pregnancy, and physical abuse.
- Under cross-examination Ellis admitted intent and the jury convicted after just 20 minutes for murder, with the judge instructing them to ignore that Ellis had been `badly treated by her lover`.
- The sentence was carried out at Holloway Prison, and Ellis' family say the execution caused lasting trauma, including an uncle's suicide, prompting decades of campaigning.
- Legal reforms like diminished responsibility and abolition of capital punishment postdate Ellis' hanging, and Alex Bailin KC says her case politicised death penalty debates with better understanding of domestic abuse.
32 Articles
32 Articles
Family Of Last UK Woman Executed In 1955 Calls For Her To Be Pardoned
The grandchildren of the last woman to be executed in Britain have called for Ruth Ellis to be pardoned, 70 years after she was sent to the gallows for murdering her "abusive" lover, their lawyers said Wednesday.
The family of Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in the UK, asks for her posthumous pardon. Sentenced for the murder of her violent lover, this case revives the debate on the recognition of victims of domestic violence
Just before Ruth Ellis killed her companion, he punched her in the belly to the point of causing a miscarriage. She was hanged in July 1955 in London.
Ruth Ellis' grandchildren, hanged in 1955 by the English justice system, asked the Minister of Justice for this symbolic gesture on behalf of their grandmother who had killed her violent companion on Wednesday, October 22.
Grandchildren of last woman hanged in U.K. seek her pardon 70 years after she killed her "abusive, violent partner," lawyer says
Ruth Ellis, a 28-year-old nightclub hostess, was hanged in July 1955 for shooting dead racing driver David Blakely as he came out of a pub in London.
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