UK grants conditional pardon to Ruth Ellis, last woman executed in Britain, 71 years after her hanging

The British government has granted a conditional pardon to Ruth Ellis, the last woman executed in the United Kingdom, replacing her death sentence with life imprisonment.

• Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy announced the pardon, stating it does not declare Ellis innocent but substitutes the death penalty with a life sentence in recognition of a grave injustice.
• Ellis, a 28-year-old nightclub hostess and single mother, was executed by hanging on July 13, 1955, after being convicted of murdering her abusive partner, racing driver David Blakely.
• Her trial did not consider evidence of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse she suffered, which later contributed to changes in UK law on diminished responsibility.
• Laura Inston, her granddaughter, said the decision acknowledges that the justice system failed Ellis and that she should not have been executed.