One of the country’s top legal firms is seeking a pardon for Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain.
TV drama: the case of Ruth Ellis is now being presented for a pardon
Ellis had lived in Sanderstead before the fateful events of 1955 in which she shot and killed her lover, David Blakely, leading to her arrest, trial and conviction for murder. Ellis, 28, was executed at Holloway Prison on July 13, 1955.
Her case sparked a wave of public debate and contributed to the eventual abolishment of the death penalty in Britain.
Ellis has been a cause célèbre since her death, the subject of several dramatisations, most recently ITV’s A Cruel Love: The Ruth Ellis Story, broadcast this month.
Now Michcon de Reya, the solicitors who represented Princess Diana in her divorce case from future king Charles, is compiling new evidence to help to obtain a pardon for Ellis, 70 years after her death.
Stephen Beard, Ruth’s grandson, and his family believe that substantial evidence was not put forward at her trial leading to Ellis being wrongly convicted and sentenced to capital punishment.
Mishcon de Reya has an historic connection with Ellis’s murder trial. While Victor Mishcon, the firm’s founder, was not instructed to represent Ellis at her trial, he took on her cause following her conviction and tried to intervene so that she was not executed.
In a statement from the firm, they say, “Despite the fact a pardon does not eliminate a conviction, a pardon should be given if it can be shown that a convicted person was morally and technically innocent.” A pardon would be a public acknowledgement of a miscarriage of justice.
There are some parallels in the questioning of the justice system and its use of capital punishment in the case of Derek Bentley, the teenager from Norbury who was hanged in 1958. Although Bentley did not fire the gun, he was executed following the fatal shooting of a policeman in a burglary at the Barlow and Parker confectionary warehouse on Tamworth Road.
Bentley was granted a posthumous pardon in 1993 and had his murder conviction quashed in 1998.
Mishcon de Reya say that in the Ruth Ellis case, their legal work will involve conducting a detailed review of the evidence presented at the trial and the new evidence that has subsequently come to light, to present an application for a pardon to the Ministry of Justice.
Rough justice: Ruth Ellis was a mother, aged 28, when she was hanged at Holloway 70 years ago
Ruth Ellis’s family believe that the crucial evidence that was not put forward at the trial includes the physically abusive and coercive relationship with David Blakely, as well as the role of Desmond Cussen in supplying and training Ruth in the use of the weapon used to kill Blakely.
Katy Colton, who is leading on the case, said: “Securing a posthumous pardon for Ruth Ellis is not just about correcting a historical wrong, it is about acknowledging the systemic failures that led to her unjust conviction and execution.
“Our legal system must reflect the values of fairness and justice, and we are committed to presenting the compelling new evidence that supports an application for a pardon. We hope this case will highlight the importance of due process and the need to ensure that justice is served, even many years after the fact.”
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