But in her letter to the Stormont Justice Committee, Ms McAlpine said that in deciding whether to grant bail, judges have to take into account a number of matters.
If a small and economically weak country has the courage to subject its two largest banks, whose activities account for much of its GDP, to the bail-in mechanism, there is no reason why the same process cannot be applied in the United States.
Instead their strategy was to force Oscar Pistorius to show his hand, giving a full account of his version of events in order to counter the premeditated murder charge raised at the bail hearing.