The comments made by David Lammy, the Secretary of State for Justice, on 8 July 2026.
I have the honour to say that His Majesty the King has accepted our advice to grant Ruth Ellis a conditional pardon – the last woman to be hanged.
While the pardon does not claim she was innocent of killing David Blakely, it replaces the death penalty with a sentence of life imprisonment to recognise a profound injust in this exceptional case.