The posthumous pardoning of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK in 1955, shows how far we have come from an era when defending yourself against domestic abuse could result in a death sentence.
The conditional pardon for the nightclub hostess from Rhyl in Denbighshire does not erase her conviction for murdering her lover, David Blakely. But it does acknowledge that Blakely subjected her to sustained physical and emotional torment before she killed him.
