both accused that it referred to eloping (the ‘risks’ being financial and/or of social stigma), the context of the letter as a whole and the words ‘3 years left’ both tend to support the judgement that an innocent explanation is a good deal more likely than the prosecution's interpretation. At the, very least, such factors seem to me to cast a reasonable doubt on that interpretation, yet this passage was the main item of evidence in support of the conspiracy theory.' A feminist review of the case occurs in Laura Thompson's 2018 book, Rex V Edith Thompson: A tale of Two Murders. Thompson (not a relative) claims that Edith Thompson was the victim of a highly prejudicial ‘gendered’ trial, with the trial judge's and the Appeal Court judges' bias against the accused woman playing a key part in her conviction. In March 2018 the BBC presented a thoughtful evaluation in an episode of the series Murder, Mystery and My Family in which barristers Sasha Wass and Jeremy Dein reviewed the case. Although they were unable to determine any new evidence they agreed that there were serious issues to be addressed regarding the final summing up by the trial judge, Mr Justice Shearman. Despite acting as prosecution and defence, Wass and Dein presented a joint submission to Senior Crown Court Judge David Radford for consideration, arguing that there was no case to answer by Edith Thompson with regard to the charge that was brought against her. Judge Radford gave his opinion that the summing up in the case was deficient and had failed to offer correct direction to the jury. He considered that it had been unfair and unbalanced and that there were grounds for coming to a decision that the conviction of Edith Thompson was both unsafe and unsatisfactory. This was followed by a second BBC 2 programme in 2019, with the same participants, to take account of the reburial of Edith Thompson in November 2018. Application for a posthumous pardon for Edith Thompson In January 2023 it was reported that an application for a posthumous pardon for Edith Thompson, using the royal prerogative of mercy, would be reconsidered by the Ministry of Justice; the application, made on behalf of Thompson's heir and executor, René Weis, had initially been rejected in 2022 by the then Justice Secretary Dominic Raab. In popular culture The Thompson and Bywaters case has provided the