Latest News About UK grants limited clemency to Ruth Ellis

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced a limited posthumous pardon to Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in the UK, indicating a shift in historical perspective, where the execution took place. A review led by the UK Attorney General, also Shabana Mahmood, found Ellis’s death sentence unjust due to her history of abuse, which the review highlighted as a key factor. Ellis was fatally shot, killing David Blakely in 1955, a crime that shocked the nation. The pardon does not clear her criminal record but formally recognizes the mistreatment she endured and the flawed nature of capital punishment, during that period.