While a pardon does not eliminate a conviction, it can be given if it can be shown a convicted person was morally and technically innocent. Mishcon de Reya will conduct a detailed review of the evidence presented at the original trial and additional evidence that has since come to light, to present an application for a pardon to the Ministry of Justice.
Ellis was executed at London's Holloway Prison on 13 July 1955, 22 days after being convicted of the murder of her former lover David Blakely. She was 28 years old and had two children, Georgina and Andy. The trial of Ruth Ellis is currently being portrayed in the ITV drama, ‘A cruel love: the Ruth Ellis story’.
Her grandson, Stephen Beard and his family believe substantial evidence was not put forward at her trial, including her physically abusive and coercive relationship with Blakely, and the role of former RAF pilot Desmond Cussen, a friend of Ellis, in supplying and training her in the use of the weapon. Ellis was at the time manager of the Little Club in Knightsbridge. There is evidence to suggest Ellis’s position as a career-focused, working-class woman in London’s club scene and lifestyle as a divorced, single mother also prejudiced the outcome of her trial.
Ellis’s family would like the British state to formally acknowledge her conviction as a miscarriage of justice.
Katy Colton, partner and head of politics and law at Mishcon de Reya, 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.
‘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.’
The late Lord Victor Mishcon, who established Mishcon de Reya, took on Ellis’s cause following her conviction and tried to intervene so she was not executed.
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