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LONDON (AP) — The last woman to be executed in Britain, for gunning down her abusive lover outside a London pub more than 70 years ago, has been posthumously granted a conditional pardon, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said Wednesday.

Ruth Ellis, a 28-year-old single mother and nightclub hostess, was hanged on July 13, 1955, for the murder of race-car driver David Blakely. She shot him outside the Magdala pub in the Hampstead neighborhood on April 10, 1955.

“While the pardon does not claim she was innocent of killing David Blakely, it replaces the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment to recognize a profound injustice in this exceptional case,” Lammy said.

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[-] Th4tGuyII@fedia.io 68 points 1 day ago

The pardon was sought by her grandchildren, who have long fought to reduce her conviction because the repeated sexual, emotional and physical abuse Ellis endured was not considered during the trial or afterward, when she could have been granted a reprieve from the death penalty.

“Justice has finally been done,” Laura Enston, a granddaughter, said in a statement. “This pardon does not undo what happened 71 years ago. It does not restore the lives that were broken — the children left behind, the years lost. But it says, formally and finally, that Ruth should not have been executed; that the justice system failed her. That acknowledgment matters profoundly to our family.”

While from the outside this feels like little more than a token gesture, it at least seems to have brought closure to her surviving grandchildren - to have this failure by the justice system acknowledged and apologised for in a official and public capacity.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

This is why no fault divorce is a good thing (I have no idea about UK law, I'm assuming.)

[-] Eternal192@anarchist.nexus 65 points 1 day ago

That means fuck all to her now.

[-] adespoton@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 day ago

But it means something to her grandchildren, as per the article.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago

Yup. Made me think of the Alanis Morrissette song.

[-] CapuccinoCoretto@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It's a death row pardon,

7 decades too late...

Isn't it ironic?

[-] Codpiece@feddit.uk 3 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

And now I’m reminded of the Ed Byrne rant saying the only ironic thing about the song is that she doesn’t know what irony is.

[-] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Worse: It's probably pretty upsetting and bringing up stuff she'd worked hard to get over.

[-] papalonian@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Being hanged is famously difficult to move on from

[-] ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 day ago

So they still think she deserved to die in prison, but the slow way? :/

[-] JohnEdwa@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

She was convicted of murder, life in prison is the mandatory punishment for that in the UK currently, so, yes.

Back in 1955, actually up to 1969, the mandatory punishment for murder was execution.

[-] EvergreenGuru@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

It would’ve been funnier if the condition was that she stay dead.

[-] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

it replaces the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment

I wonder if there's an article out there which uses this as a headline, would be good for the "not the onion" communities

Interesting how she committed the offence in April and was hung in July of the same year. Different world back then, I suppose.

[-] BananaIsABerry@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 day ago

Oh cool! Performative bullshit!

[-] SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world -1 points 1 day ago

This is one of those where you see the headline and assumed it happened during WWII, not the mid 50s.

[-] Triumph@fedia.io 12 points 1 day ago

A whopping twelve years difference there.

[-] saltesc@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

The were savages back in 2014!

[-] osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org 1 points 1 day ago

You're not wrong

[-] Ariselas@piefed.ca 8 points 1 day ago

Star Wars was in theaters at the same time as the last execution by guillotine.

this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2026
87 points (94.8% liked)

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