Ruth Ellis, the last woman executed in the UK, granted posthumous pardon

Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in the United Kingdom, was granted a posthumous conditional pardon on July 8, 2026, more than seven decades after her death. The pardon, approved by King Charles III on the advice of Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy, commutes her 1955 death sentence to life imprisonment.

The decision formally recognises a profound injustice in her original conviction. Ellis was sentenced to death and hanged for the murder of her lover, David Blakely. However, a decades-long campaign by her family argued that she was a victim of severe domestic abuse and coercive control, factors that were not properly considered during her trial.

According to evidence presented by campaigners, including Ellis's grandchildren Laura Enston and Stephen Beard, Blakely subjected Ellis to persistent physical and emotional abuse. This included an assault that reportedly caused her to miscarry shortly before the murder. During the 1955 trial, the presiding judge explicitly instructed the jury to disregard this mistreatment as a legal defence.

The conditional pardon does not quash the murder conviction itself, but officially acknowledges that the death penalty was unjustly applied given the circumstances of abuse. Officials stated the intervention corrects a historic failure by the justice system to account for the coercive control Ellis endured prior to the offence.

The pardon follows renewed public scrutiny of the case and its handling by the mid-century legal system. The historical reassessment coincides with the broadcast of the ITV drama "A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story," underscoring how modern understandings of domestic violence have shifted since Ellis's execution 71 years ago.