I have witnessed many court rulings announced in my past six years of reporting on law. But this time I could clearly hear my heart beating fast as this high-profile case has been part of my career.

Nie Shubin has been a name familiar to almost all legal journalists in China because his case has been widely reported and discussed for more than 10 years.

On Friday, 21 years after being wrongly executed for rape and murder, Nie was finally pardoned on the grounds that the facts were unclear and there was insufficient evidence against him.