Roman Polanski raped a 13 year-old girl more than 30 years ago. Roman Polanski, who was 43 years old at the time of the crime, has never denied he gave Quaaludes and alcohol to a minor so he could force her into sexual acts with him. On the contrary, he entered a plea bargain for the lesser crime of statutory rape or unlawful sexual acts with a minor. It was after the case was tried, the plea bargain negotiated and before he was to be sentenced that he fleed the country.

Polanski fled to France, the country where he was born and where there are no extradition agreements with the United States. Protected by their laws and the fawning adoration of the entertainment industry, Polanski has been able to lead as normal a life as any fugitive rapist / auteur director could. Indeed, Polanski has gone on to completing 10 more movies. Among them is The Pianist, for which he won an Oscar for best director.

On the other hand, the victim of his crime (who is a mother of 3 in her 40s), has asked to dismiss the case NOT because she feels any particular pity but because of the pain and anguish she and her family are put through with the media circus: "Every time this case is brought to the attention of the Court, great focus is made of me, my family, my mother and others. That attention is not pleasant to experience and is not worth maintaining over some irrelevant legal nicety, the continuation of the case."

As commenters over at Metafilter have pointed out, victims do not get to pick and choose how justice will be meted from criminals. It is for a reason this case is called People of the State of California v. Roman Raymond Polanski. Justice matters to state as much as the victim.

The fugitive rapist was arrested in Switzerland a few days ago. Given all the apologists Polanski has had over the years, including all of the Academy of Arts and Sciences directors who decided to give him an Oscar in 2002, the arrest has turned into an international incident with both Poland and France demanding from Switzerland and the United States to free the director and drop the rape conviction.

The discussions this case has triggered online could be summed up into two camps: on one side are the "About goddamn timers" and on the other side apologists who say things like, "If he weren't famous, I bet no one would bother with him at all".

By the way, Anne Applebaum, the Washington-Post "journalist" who wrote this last ditty, didn't disclose that her "ubiased" look at Polanski's case is tainted by a rather interesting conflict of interest.

As Kieran Healy says, there are no excuses for Roman Polanski to still be out an about on a Get Out of Child Rape Free card. To wit, Roman Polanski raped a 13 year-old, negotiated a lesser crime and only then fled the country instead of facing sentencing.

Yet, putting the ethical issue of the rape conviction aside, Polanski should be tried and punished for becoming a fugitive of the law. Legal scholar Scott Lemieux agrees with me on this last count.