Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced a conditional 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, that the review highlighted as a key factor. Ellis was fatally shot, killing David Blakely in 1955, an incident that shocked the nation. The pardon does not expunge her criminal record but formally recognizes the abuse she faced and the flawed nature of capital punishment, during that period.