Indeed, the Blanton trial was seen globally as an American expiation drama, the most stirring in a series of last-chance prosecutions of old civil rights crimes around the South.
The recent series of overdue prosecutions of old civil rights crimes -- reconciliation cases," as they are sometimes known -- may be a perverse outgrowth of the thicket of collective denial that long allowed Southern communities to treat the murderers in their midst as ordinary citizens, if no longer heroes to the race.
But the pending federal prosecution of 31-year-old Barrett Brown poses all new troubling risks.
Chile's courts, encouraged by the newly installed Socialist government, are pushing ahead with the prosecution of the 84-year-old former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet on charges he was involved in the kidnapping, murder and torture of thousands of his countrymen.
Mr. Earle, the Travis County district attorney, has had his share of controversy: his 1996 prosecution of an 11-year-old girl for murdering a 2-year-old baby has been widely criticized.
"The prosecution of any 20-year-old murder case is difficult," he added.
While lawyers for the two men convicted of second-degree murder say they will appeal, prosecution of the 33-year-old crime is, perhaps, coming to a close.
During the recent prosecution of an 11-year-old rioter in Highbury, London, she was forced to complete her sketch in a hairdresser's salon, after court security turfed her out of the lobby.
The real damage to Egypt's reputation came from the politically motivated prosecution of Mr. Ibrahim, a 64-year-old sociologist who worked to encourage cleaner elections, wider political participation by women and better understanding between Egypt's Muslim majority and Coptic Christian minority, earning him an international reputation.
Tired puns and rampant theatrical references, mostly to thrillers of old ("Angel Street," "Sleuth," "Witness for the Prosecution," "Dial M for Murder") were not energized.
