Supreme Court Judge Justice Lennox Campbell on Wednesday threw out a murder case that has been before the courts for the last 11 years.

The judge said that the men facing the murder charge arising from the death of a policeman in St Thomas in 1999 had constitutional rights, and the matter should not have been going on for so long.

They are Byron Johnson, Solomon Johnson, Devon Hackett, and Carlos Williams.

Reports are that on December 4, 1999, Corporal James McDonald was fatally shot and stabbed.

Interestingly, on Wednesday, only 11 of the 12 jurors needed were selected and one more juror would have been needed for the case to proceed.

Both defence lawyers and the prosecutors pleaded for Campbell to put off the case until Monday when they said the full list of jurors could be available.

However, the judge decided that he was going to stop the jury selection.

He subsequently told the accused men to go home and not to continue reporting to the police, which was part of their bail condition.

The Director of Public Prosecution, Paula Llewellyn, and one of the defence attorneys have since taken issue with the decision of Campbell.

Llewellyn says she intends to take the matter to the chief justice.

THE WEEKEND STAR understands that the case has been before the Supreme Court 38 times.