The Case of Roman Polanski
kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
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Director Roman Polanski was arrested on September 27th during a trip to the Zurich film festival, where he was to be given a lifetime achievement award for his work. The United States will attempt to extradite him in relation to the rape of a 13 year old girl in 1977.
The prosecution alleges that Polanski gave the girl champagne and a partial Quaalude after a photo shoot and then had sex with her. Clearly, this was wrong, and I won’t attempt to convince you otherwise.
However, I do believe that it is time to drop the case against Polanski.
Polanski plead guilty to engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. After serving 42 days in prison undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, Polanski expected to be sentenced to time served and probation, per the terms of his plea deal. When the judge told Polanski’s attorneys that he would send Polanski to prison and have him deported – contrary to the plea deal – Polanski fled to France, where he has resided for the last 30 years.
Judges do have the right to overrule plea agreements if they feel that they are not a fair resolution to the case. Many times, I would be OK with this. However, in this particular case, the victim of the crime has repeatedly stated her opposition to the judge’s intentions, and has even filed paperwork asking that the case be dropped. Bear in mind that the victim is no longer a fragile 13 year old girl, but a 45 year old woman. She has had 32 years to think about this and form an opinion – this is not some off-the-cuff comment. If she wants the case dropped, perhaps we should listen to her. I do not believe her statements are financially motivated – she reached a financial settlement with Polanski decades ago.
So, then whose interest is the district attorney representing? Certainly not the victim’s, since she wants the case dropped. Perhaps you could make the case that he is representing society, to make sure that Polanksi does not reoffend. However, this appears a bit unlikely at this stage in Polanski’s life. I’m not saying that it’s impossible, but I’d be very surprised to see this.
Polanski has lived a life with incredible peaks and valleys. He grew up in Poland and was sent to the Krakow Ghetto by the Nazis during World War II. Both of his parents were sent to concentration camps; his mother died in Auschwitz.
In 1969, his pregnant wife, Sharon Tate, was savagely murdered by members of the notorious Manson Family as part of a slaughter at Polanski’s home (Polanski himself was out of town at the time of the murders). Tate was stabbed sixteen times as she was held down and begged for her assailants to spare her life and the life of the unborn child.
In the midst of this tragedy, he has woven together a masterful career. Polanski is the director of Oscar winning films Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, Tess, and The Pianist, as well as many other critically acclaimed movies.
Kosmo is the founder of The Soap Boxers and writes on a variety of topics, including the Fiction Friday original short stories. You can purchase some of Kosmo's work at the company store. Like Kosmo's writing? You can leave a tip. Like this site? Subscribe via RSS, Subscribe via Email, or Follow us on Twitter. The permanent URL for this article is:http://www.thesoapboxers.com/the-case-of-roman-polanski/
The Nebraska Tradition
Johnny Goodman - See all 52 of my articles
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For fear of talking too much about the University of Nebraska Football team, I have abstained from writing articles about them this college football season … until now. One of the signs at the Memorial Stadium reads: Through these gates pass the greatest fans in College football. Not many who have been to Lincoln for [...]
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Bank Makes Mistake, Innocent Bystander Suffers
kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
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On August 12th, an employee of Rocky Mountain Bank sent a spreadsheet with 1300 names, address, and social security numbers to a GMail (Google email) address. Unfortunately, the person sent it to the wrong address. The data was apparently unencrypted (this is a conclusion that I have come to, based solely on RMB’s subsequent actions). [...]
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Back From the Almost Dead
Tyson Turner - See all 11 of my articles
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So it’s been a while…much too long. I give many thanks and apologies to Kosmo for his understanding and ability to fill the spot in my absence. The main reason for my absence was the combination of a brutal migraine/sinus infection which kept me on the sidelines from pretty much everything for about three weeks. [...]
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Inside Kosmo’s Brain
kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
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I’m seriously trying to avoid making this blog “all Kosmo, all the time”. Nonetheless, I have been focusing so much on writing the end-of-quarter short story that this makes a natural topic for today. I’m about 5000 words into the story. The story will likely be between 10000 and 12000 words when I’m done, meaning [...]
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Johnny’s Picks
Johnny Goodman - See all 52 of my articles
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Last Week: Straight Up – 13-7 ATS: 10-10 For the Year: Straight Up – 39-13 ATS: 25-27 A decent week for Johnny G last weekend, I need the worm to turn on the ATS picks. Thanks to Kosmo for filling in with a sports article on Monday as I had to head out of town [...]
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No Fiction Today!
kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
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There will not be a new fiction story today. Oh, no. Why not? Is Kosmo running out of ideas? Nope, nothing that bad. I have begun work on the capstone story for volume 2 of “The Fiction of Kosmo” and want to focus all my fiction energy into that at this point. The new story [...]
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Are Mark Reynolds’ Strikeouts Hurting The Diamondbacks?
kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
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Make a note of this event – it is very rare that I am going to defend a player on a rival team. All stats are prior to Wednesday’s game. Mark Reynolds of the Diamondbacks is having a great season in an otherwise forgettable year for the Snakes (although he has been struggling quite a [...]
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Review of St. Louis
kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
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Over the years, St. Louis has become a favorite destination for my wife and me. Many times in the past, trips to St. Louis have included a trip to the Edward Jones Dome to catch my wife’s favorite team, the St. Louis Rams. Our most recent trip, however, did not include a Rams game. My [...]
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The Creative Process
kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
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As I have mentioned eleventy billion times previously, I am an aspiring novelist. By “aspiring”, I mean that I have yet to produce anything long enough to be classified as a novel (although the story Key Relationships was a step in the right direction in terms of length). Writing fiction for The Soap Boxers has [...]
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