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08/12/2003
Ruth Ellis' murder conviction upheld
The murder conviction of the last woman to be hanged in Britain, Ruth Ellis, has been upheld today at the Court of Appeal.
The appeal was dismissed after judges ruled that no new evidence had been presented and the appeal was consequently "without merit".
Lawyers acting for Ruth Ellis' family argued that the murder conviction should be downgraded to manslaughter as she was a "battered" woman who had been provoked.
The judge at the original trial ruled that the jury should not hear evidence that Ellis suffered a miscarriage after her lover, racing driver David Blakely, punched her in the stomach – 10 days before the murder. Michael Mansfield QC, for the family, claimed that the court could not have considered the lesser charge of manslaughter because of this decision.
However, the appeal court today stood by the murder conviction saying that it was a correct interpretation of the law as it stood at the time.
The judges went on to slam the Criminal Cases Review Commission for referring the case on, saying that as Ellis had not appealed her conviction at the time it was a questionable use of resources for an appeal to be mounted now.
(gmcg)
The appeal was dismissed after judges ruled that no new evidence had been presented and the appeal was consequently "without merit".
Lawyers acting for Ruth Ellis' family argued that the murder conviction should be downgraded to manslaughter as she was a "battered" woman who had been provoked.
The judge at the original trial ruled that the jury should not hear evidence that Ellis suffered a miscarriage after her lover, racing driver David Blakely, punched her in the stomach – 10 days before the murder. Michael Mansfield QC, for the family, claimed that the court could not have considered the lesser charge of manslaughter because of this decision.
However, the appeal court today stood by the murder conviction saying that it was a correct interpretation of the law as it stood at the time.
The judges went on to slam the Criminal Cases Review Commission for referring the case on, saying that as Ellis had not appealed her conviction at the time it was a questionable use of resources for an appeal to be mounted now.
(gmcg)
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