stated after the ruling that a lawyer will be appointed to see if any grounds for a pardon exist, and how a pardon would affect the legal rights and status of British prisoners abroad. On 2 July 2009, Shields had an appeal for a pardon provisionally refused by Justice Secretary Jack Straw. A statement issued by the Ministry of Justice said: Following a detailed and careful consideration of all the relevant evidence the Justice Secretary Jack Straw has made a provisional decision that the application for a free pardon from Mr Michael Shields should be refused. Mr Straw has made his decision in accordance with the High Court judgment of 17 December 2008 which indicated that, in order to grant a free pardon, he would have to be satisfied that Mr Shields was morally and technically innocent. Shields' legal team was given four weeks by the Ministry of Justice to present new evidence for consideration before a final decision was made. As a result, the third Westminster Hall Adjournment Debate secured by Louise Ellman MP was held on 15 July 2009, which set out the great concern over the safety of the conviction and the technical framework within which Straw had refused the pardon. Straw subsequently met again with the Shields family on 28 August 2009 at Blackburn Town Hall. Police and MoJ memoranda According to an initial memo, released under Freedom of Information requests, on 25 March 2008 by the head of Merseyside police Brian McNeill to Jack Straw, it was stated that if evidence from an unidentified witness (Witness A) allegedly identifying an alternative suspect to Shields has not been submitted to Bulgarian courts, then – on presumptive legal equivalence between UK and Bulgarian law – Shields might have been able to appeal against his conviction and apply for release on bail during the appeal process (although for attempted murder, remand is presumed more likely). The memo also states the opposing case – that if the court system in Bulgaria had considered the evidence of Witness A, and that the conviction of Shields should stand, a pardon would require "further deliberation". Further, it stated that should the conviction of Shields be overturned in Bulgaria, that Merseyside police would render "all assistance formally requested [from the Bulgarian police] in dealing with [Graham] Sankey" who had made and then retracted a public confession to the crime, As Sankey retracted his