If the Justice Department still views its brief as providing justice for all, it must surely be time to put up or shut up in the case of Richard Jewell.
Mr Jewell is currently languishing in his Atlanta apartment, trying to repair the damage done to it - and to his reputation - by agents who searched it six weeks ago in full view of every media organisation in the country.
On that day - following an Atlanta Journal-Constitution exclusive naming Mr Jewell as chief suspect in the Olympics bombing case - America turned into a jury willing to pass a unanimous vote declaring him guilty as charged.
The only problem is, Mr Jewell has not been charged, following a week of intensive probing, when FBI agents and the media sifted through every aspect of the security guard's existence.
A month later, the Justice Department declared the case still under investigation, and Mr Jewell still had not been charged. And at the time of writing, nothing has changed.
Not only has the FBI turned up no evidence of Mr Jewell's guilt, it is becoming ominously clear that they probably never will. The FBI does not have a clue who planted the pipe bomb that killed one person and brought on another's fatal heart attack.
