Ruth Ellis. What are your thoughts?

I didn't watch it because I would get upset at the injustice of it. I hope she gets a pardon.

There is a documentary on ITVX that was made to accompany the drama series called The Real Ruth Ellis. In it Nigel Havers talks about the involvement of his grandfather the judge.

It also has interviews two of with Ruth Ellis's grandchildren about the impact of the case and her execution on the family. Very sad.

It is interesting to compare the Ruth Ellis case with that of Edith Thompson who was hanged in 1923 for the murder of her husband.

Edith Thompson's conviction was based largely on the fact that she had written passionate letters to her lover, Frederick Bywaters, which indicated that she hated her husband. The letters were read out in court and it was clear that Edith Thompson had been having affair with Frederick Bywaters who was nine years her junior.

The Thompsons had been returning from the theatre when a man jumped out of the shadows and after a struggle Percy Thompson was fatally stabbed. Edith Thompson stood by screaming in a state of hysteria.

Despite the fact that there was no direct evidence of Edith Thompson's involvement, both Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters were hanged in 1923.

There was a feeling in both cases that they were being judged not just for the murder but for their morals.

I too agree

Labradora

I don't think that she deserved to be hanged but should have been convicted of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility had such a legal concept existed at that time, which it didn't. Then she should have been sentenced accordingly.
I have always had a great deal of respect for the late Ruth Ellis simply because she refused to abjure responsibility for her crime, she did after all put two bullets into the body of a supine , already injured man who could not fight back.
Blakely was , without doubt, a gold standard shit, but that unfortunately, is not illegal and does not give anyone a right to kill somebody.
RIP Ruth Ellis.

I agree with all your points on this matter👍🏻

Kandinsky

*he was a war hero related to a judge,whilst maintaining his innocence he fled to Australia*

Yes, that came across in the latest drama,
basically, he was being protected & Ruth Ellis was going to hang no matter what.

From watching the drama I agree Kandinsky (great art btw) How near the truth it was, or not, l don't know.

I don't think that she deserved to be hanged but should have been convicted of manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility had such a legal concept existed at that time, which it didn't. Then she should have been sentenced accordingly.
I have always had a great deal of respect for the late Ruth Ellis simply because she refused to abjure responsibility for her crime, she did after all put two bullets into the body of a supine , already injured man who could not fight back.
Blakely was , without doubt, a gold standard shit, but that unfortunately, is not illegal and does not give anyone a right to kill somebody.
RIP Ruth Ellis.

he was a war hero related to a judge,whilst maintaining his innocence he fled to Australia

Yes, that came across in the latest drama,
basically, he was being protected & Ruth Ellis was going to hang no matter what.

Anniebach

Thank you, so the charge of murder was wrong.

It wasn't wrong as she admitted murdering him, but there may have been extenuating circumstances that could have saved her from hanging. The part Desmond Cussen's played in encouraging/coercing her could have made him an accessory, he was a war hero related to a judge,whilst maintaining his innocence he fled to Australia.

No, the charge of murder was correct.
When the prosecuting counsel asked her, "Mrs. Ellis, when you fired that revolver at close range into the body of David Blakely what did you intend to do" she replied, "It was obvious that when I shot him I intended to kill him." So the jury were presented with an admission to the shooting plus the all important admission of intent to kill.
There was insufficient evidence to plead provocation for murder thus changing the charge from murder to manslaughter due to the violent nature of the relationship between Ellis and Blakely, but the most important factor in the quest for a pardon is that Ruth Ellis did not seek to escape from the death sentence despite many supporters attempting to persuade her to petition the Home Secretary for a reprieve.

When I was about 14, 70 years ago, I use to say that we would in the future look back at the time we had the death penalty with horror and disbelief. No civilised country could possibly condone such a thing. Yet there are still people in our country who would bring it back.

Thank you, so the charge of murder was wrong.

Anniebach

There is a call for Ruth Ellis to be given a pardon, how can this be granted ?

The law firm pursuing this on behalf of her family were founded by the lawyer who tried to get the reprieve at the time. The grounds seem to be that he coercive relationship with Blakely and the role of Desmond Cussens (who she claimed gave her the gun and taught her how to use it, as well as driving her to the scene) were not taken into account during the trial.

Will the pardon be for the punishment of hanging, was it not the law at that time ? The home office refused

And that the verdict was wrong too - would she have been charged murder today or with manslaughter due to provocation?

Anniebach

There is a call for Ruth Ellis to be given a pardon, how can this be granted ?

For her children and grandchildren. A posthumous pardon shows that the punishment was inappropriate.

Ruth Ellis was a nightclub hostess and living in sin, and pregnant but not married , and we are speaking of the 50’s, a
time of mother and baby homes

I find it fascinating that at the same time another woman who killed was reprieved.

Sarah Lloyd convicted of beating her 86-year-old neighbour to death with a spade.
Virtually no publicity, no pressure from the public.
As I once read, was Ruth crime any worse than Sarah's? No (unless we consider the life of a 25-year-old man to be more valuable than the life of an 86-year-old woman). For Ruth, it was her failure to meet standards of conventional morality that proved fatal.

I don't agree with the death penalty for anyone so obviously I don't agree with it for her.

I haven't seen all of it. There was another film about her a while ago, her life was desperate and sad. The legacy of her execution, I imagine was a terrible cross for her children to bear. I've always felt that the trio of Timothy Evans, Derek Bentley and Ruth Ellis are the three hangings that resonate with the British public as the most horrifying. My personal opinion is that capital punishment is appalling it makes my blood run cold, state sanctioned and cold blooded in the extreme.

There is a call for Ruth Ellis to be given a pardon, how can this be granted ?

I remember the case very well,; I was nine at the time and the trial and punishment exercised a horrid fascination over me. It was all over the newspapers, screaming headlines on the hoardings and much discussed by adults.
My parents were very sympathetic towards Ruth Ellis, and i remember my mother taking issue with two women who said, if there were no bad women like her, there would be no bad men; it was all her fault. Blakely's treatment of her was known during the trial, but Ruth Ellis insisted that she knew what she was doing and she intended to shoot him, to kill. Therefore, premeditation.
The Judge, Cecil Havers, had no alternative but to deliver the death penalty, but wrote following the trial to the Home Secretary and other politicians asking for the sentence to be commuted to Life imprisonment but without success. He sent money for the upkeep of her son every year; I believe the daughter was adopted.
I think, had Ruth Ellis been spared the death penalty she would have probably committed suicide, because she accepted her guilt and did not ant to live. It was truly a crime of passion, but that defence was not accepted in Britain. Social mores were very different then

Redhead56

I watched a programme about Ruth Ellis years ago. It was premeditated murder at the time capital punishment was the law.
Murder in the past was national news people were shocked. These days, a murder occurs nearly every single day unfortunately there is no deterrent.

It may surprise you to know that murder was not always national news in 1955. For example the murder of a policeman's wife that year went unreported even by the local newspaper, it was never solved.

Hundreds of people died that year under suspicious circumstances many of them but by no means all, women killed by their partners, gangland criminals and prostitutes.
Very few of them featured in the national news.

I don’t agree with the death penalty full stop.

There’s been a few programmes about Ruth Ellis, I think she was as much a victim as the one she killed, but that’s no excuse.

I watched a programme about Ruth Ellis years ago. It was premeditated murder at the time capital punishment was the law.
Murder in the past was national news people were shocked. These days, a murder occurs nearly every single day unfortunately there is no deterrent.