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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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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.
·Germany
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Historic Pardon for Ruth Ellis: A Symbolic Act of Mercy
Ruth Ellis, the last British woman hanged in 1955 for murder, received a posthumous pardon, her sentence symbolically commuted to life imprisonment by King Charles. This comes as a response to new evidence highlighting domestic abuse. The pardon is meant to acknowledge past injustices and bring peace to her family.
·India
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Ruth Ellis was hanged in 1955 as punishment for murdering her partner.
·Netherlands (Kingdom of the)
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources72
Leaning Left13Leaning Right9Center34Last UpdatedBias Distribution61% Center
Bias Distribution
- 61% of the sources are Center
61% Center
L 23%
C 61%
R 16%
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