Had he hung around to be sentenced I wouldn’t necessarily be against giving the victim’s statement great weight. Of course, there’s a good chance her feelings were different then, considering that according to your link, she sued him in 1988. I wonder how much her desire to put this all past her has affected her opinion. After all, if Polanski comes back and is pardoned, the story will die down eventually, just as it will if he comes back and is incarcerated. Even now, I wouldn’t mind the judicial system giving great weight to her opinion- but I think her opinion is outweighed by the fact that he fled. I don’t see the flight as much different from escaping from prison after being sentenced, and just as I wouldn’t want to reward someone for escaping, I don’t believe it’s right to reward Polanski for fleeing. And that’s what it would be, if he returns to the US and is pardoned, a reward.
Walloon,
You are correct, and I misspoke. Allow me to correct myself. Where I wrote, *" I certainly would not want to live in a society where punishments are meted out based on how we *feel about convicted criminals. Would you?"
Replace “punishments are meted out” with “guilt is determined”.
I don’t see how Ms. Geimer’s feelings today are relevant to Polanski’s guilt for the crime, and his guilt for fleeing.
It may influence my opinion, but I cannot say with certainty. It clearly would not make my opinion of him any worse. It is as much a reasoned position (being against those who commit crimes) as it is an emotional one (hating child rapists). I don’t know if I could ever look past raping a child. His film career in that respect is irrelevant.