Britain grants conditional pardon to Ruth Ellis, last woman

The last woman to be executed in Britain has been granted a posthumous conditional pardon, the government announced on Wednesday, July 8, 2026. Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy told Parliament that King Charles III had accepted ministerial advice to pardon Ruth Ellis, who was hanged on July 13, 1955, for the murder of her lover, racing driver David Blakely.

The pardon does not declare Ellis innocent of killing Blakely, whom she shot outside the Magdala pub in London's Hampstead neighborhood on April 10, 1955. Instead, it symbolically replaces her death sentence with a term of life imprisonment. Lammy stated the action was taken "to recognise a profound injustice in this exceptional case" and expressed hope it would bring "a measure of peace" to her family.

Ellis's grandchildren, who were present in the House of Commons for the announcement, have campaigned for years to have her conviction reconsidered. They argued that evidence of severe domestic abuse she endured was excluded from her trial, which lasted just over a day. The jury was instructed to disregard the fact she had been badly treated by Blakely, and it reached a guilty verdict in less than half...