Last woman executed in Britain for killing abusive lover is given a conditional pardon
Summary
Ruth Ellis, the last woman executed in Britain for killing her abusive lover in 1955, will receive a conditional pardon. The pardon acknowledges that she should not have been sentenced to death given the abuse she suffered, though it does not declare her innocent.Key Facts
- Ruth Ellis was hanged on July 13, 1955, for killing her race-car driver lover, David Blakely.
- Ellis shot Blakely outside a London pub after enduring sexual, emotional, and physical abuse.
- Her trial did not allow her to argue that abuse affected her actions, and the jury was told not to consider her mistreatment.
- Two years after Ellis’s execution, Britain passed a law allowing a "diminished responsibility" defense in cases like hers.
- Her family applied for a pardon citing evidence of "battered woman syndrome," showing she was abused and threatened.
- The pardon changes her sentence to life imprisonment but does not claim she was innocent of the killing.
- The UK stopped using the death penalty in 1965 and ended it completely in 1970.
- Ellis’s case has influenced British law and remained well-known through media and a 1985 film called “Dance with a Stranger.”
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