The British government has posthumously pardoned Ruth Ellis, who was executed in 1955 for murdering her partner. The decision comes more than 70 years after her execution, which is now seen as a serious injustice. Ellis was sentenced to death in July 1955 after shooting her violent partner, David Blakely.
The jury had failed to consider mitigating circumstances, including domestic violence. Ten days before the killing, Blakely had punched Ellis in the stomach, causing a miscarriage. The case prompted a shift in British attitudes toward the death penalty, which was abolished in 1973.
Justice Minister and Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told Parliament that the pardon acknowledges a “grave injustice.” Two of Ellis’s grandchildren watched from the public gallery, expressing relief that the pardon officially recognizes that Ellis should not have been executed, even though it cannot undo the past.
Source: www.spiegel.de
