King Charles III Grants Posthumous Pardon to Ruth Ellis

King Charles III granted a posthumous conditional pardon to Ruth Ellis, the last woman executed in the United Kingdom, on July 8, 2026. The decision, announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy in the House of Commons, followed government advice to recognize a profound injustice in her case.

Ellis was hanged at Holloway Prison on July 13, 1955, after killing her lover, David Blakely, outside The Magdala pub in Hampstead. While the pardon does not declare Ellis innocent of the murder, it symbolically replaces her death sentence with life imprisonment. The move follows a long-term campaign by four of Ellis's grandchildren, including Laura Enston, who argued that her grandmother was a victim of brutal domestic abuse and coercive control.

Government officials noted that during the 1955 trial, the judge instructed the jury to disregard these factors. The Ministry of Justice stated that under modern legal standards, Ellis could have potentially argued diminished responsibility or loss of control, which might have reduced the conviction to manslaughter. David Lammy described the pardon as an act of mercy intended to bring peace to the family after 71 years of carrying the weight of the execution.