Arabic version: روث إليس تتلقى عفواً مشروطاً بعد أكثر من 70 عاماً من إعدامها

Ruth Ellis, the last woman executed in the United Kingdom, will receive a conditional pardon more than 70 years after her death, as confirmed by the country’s deputy prime minister. This decision is based on what officials describe as a “profound injustice” in her case.

Ellis was executed in July 1955 for the murder of her lover, David Blakely, whom she shot outside a London pub. At the time of her execution, she was a 28-year-old mother of two children who were aged three and 10. Her case generated significant public outcry and played a pivotal role in shifting public opinion against the death penalty in the UK.

According to ABC News, Ellis’s family has long maintained that she was a victim of abuse. They argued that had her case been tried today, it likely would have resulted in a charge of manslaughter rather than murder. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy stated that the pardon does not declare her innocent but recognizes the injustice of her execution by converting her death penalty to a life sentence.

Ellis’s grandchildren highlighted the extensive abuse she suffered at the hands of Blakely, including an incident just ten days before the fatal shooting when he punched her in the stomach, causing her to suffer a miscarriage. One of her granddaughters expressed that while the pardon does not restore the past, it formally acknowledges that she should not have been executed and that the justice system failed her.

The case of Ruth Ellis not only led to her tragic fate but also catalyzed significant changes in UK law, including the permanent abolition of the death penalty in 1969 and the introduction of diminished responsibility as a legal defense.