The last woman hanged in Britain was suffering from battered woman syndrome when she killed her lover, London's Court of Appeal has heard.
At a posthumous appeal against Ruth Ellis's murder conviction today, lawyers for her family said the trial was skewed against her because the judge would not allow a defence of provocation.
Ruth Ellis was 28 when she was hanged in 1955 for the murder of her lover, racing driver David Blakely. Ellis, a nightclub hostess, shot him as he came out of a London pub.
"There was a substantial error at the trial which has led, for the last 48 years, to the miscarriage of justice that took place," the Ellis family lawyer, Mr Michael Mansfield, told the court.
He said the trial had been "skewed" because of the judge's decision to withdraw Ellis's defence of provocation from consideration by the jury.
Mr Mansfield said there was new evidence that, at the time of the killing, Ellis was suffering from what is now known as battered woman syndrome. The evidence is thought to relate to an alleged attack on Ellis by Blakely 10 days before he was killed, after which she is said to have suffered a miscarriage.
The family is appealing for her conviction to be reduced from murder to manslaughter on the grounds of provocation.
The case was referred for appeal by the Criminal Cases Review Commission, which investigates possible miscarriages of justice, and is expected to last two days. Judgement is likely to be made at a later date.