Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced a limited posthumous pardon to Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged in the UK, signalling a shift in historical perspective, in which the execution took place. A review by the UK Attorney General, also Shabana Mahmood, found Ellis’s death sentence mistaken due to her history of abuse, which the review highlighted as a key factor. Ellis was shot and killed David Blakely in 1955, an incident that shocked the nation. The pardon does not clear her criminal record but formally recognizes the mistreatment she endured and the flawed nature of capital punishment, at the time.