A Mississippi court's conviction in 1994 of Byron De La Beckwith in the Medgar Evers murder and now the fact that 62-year-old Thomas Blanton is headed for prison both show that a belated prosecution is better than none at all.
"The proposed change to remove the time limit on prosecutions would better reflect the seriousness of the offence, as would a higher penalty on conviction," says the information commissioner in his blog.
Because those prosecutions are better if you can say, 'there is a very clearly understood set of professional rules, that everybody knows you must follow, which you did or didn't follow.
When it came to the indictments involving the wars in Bosnia and Croatia, the prosecution fared little better.
Designed to encourage better prosecution of violations of the current system, it would not expand background checks.
"More female leaders, based on my personal experience, always lead to a better prosecution rate of sexual offences".
They said they were not asking for new copyright laws, just better prosecution of the fast-growing number of digital piracy cases.
Republicans have instead proposed legislation that would encourage better prosecution of background check violations but not expand the screening process in any way.
Restrictions on legal aid mean the prosecution is often better funded than the defence (and now solicitors are being asked to compete for contracts to represent defendants in order to drive costs down further).
Speaking on MSNBC's Meet the Press programme on Sunday, Murphy wisely said: "I think [focusing on the liberal nature of the Democrats] is a better prosecution for the McCain campaign than these character attacks or these dubious association, you know, background issues and Obama.
