However much you might not like a particular application of it, I think the constitutional prohibition on ex post facto laws is, in addition to being in the constitution, extremely important to keep.
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Delay only comes up when the statute of limitations has expired and the prosecution is arguing that some kind of exception applies, or the SOL has tolled for some reason. Until then, the prosecutor can file a complaint on the day before the SOL expires, if he or she wants to.
Really? In Ireland any kind of a case can be thrown out by the judge for excessive delay in prosecution of it (say a tax case for example - I happened to be reading one last week) regardless of whether a statute of limitations applies or not. That said I can’t actually imagine them doing that for a rape or murder case (for which there is no statute of limitations anyway).
As for ex post facto laws I think you would be horrified at the ECHR jurisprudence on retrospective taxation laws (just fine apparently).
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