The DPP's office has been responsible for a string of spectacular successes in the criminal courts, but fortune is a fickle suitor, and tonight that office finds itself on the brink of a public shaming and the man bearing down on them is a Supreme Court Justice.
Today in court, Justice Troadio Gonzalez made the unprecedented gesture of threatening to bail an accused murderer if the DPP's office is not ready to try his case by October, 19 months after he was first remanded.
Gonzalez told Deon Smith, the accused that the prosecution should prove its case with dispatch, and they can't just have him languishing in prison like in the days of old. And referring to two other murder cases that are before the court, Justice Gonzalez warned that, "on Thursday one of these cases must be tried or I will strike them out and let the press and society take their vengeance out of the DPP." Very strong words from the bench, and we wait until Thursday to see if the DPP's office got the sense.