Roman Polanski arrested in Zürich

[Jaron]

We're talking about the law here, dude. You're in way over your head, Marcin.

[grumbler]

It has to be the indictment or an agreement between prosecution, defense, and the judge; if the defendant refuses a plea deal, the judge and prosecutor can't throw a softball.

If a judge offers a deal, then reneges on it, I would assume the conversations regarding the deal would become ex parte and would require censure, recusal, or a retrial, depending on when it happened and to what extent it influenced the proceedings.

Kinda curious as to why you are stating with such assumed authority things which even I, a law dilettante, know are untrue. 

[grumbler]

Why does that matter?

You are talking about "the justice America wants."  Since the only person about whom you can state the "wants" is yourself, we must translate "America" as you (though a you assuming that your wants are universal, which, of course, they are not).

This is what I hate about this fucking place. Everyone has to have an unmovable position. I'm actually interested in people's opinions, and often change my own when people make good arguments (and this does happen on Languish) so my opinion is malleable on this issue, and others. I've always maintained though that he should finish his sentence (and do the year or whatever for evading jail) but...

This is what I hate abiout some fucking posters.  They get all "I'm actually interested in people's opinions" but, when asked for their own, claim the asker is taking "an unmovable position" which makes them "hate this place."

Generally, if you want opinions, you should ask open-ended questions, rather than making silly pronouncements about what "America wants."

what I am cynical about is: that actually happening, and am quite amused by all the morons who spend so much time talking about how he's not an exception to be made because of his art. Well d'uh. Being creative and successful with that creativity doesn't exclude you from being someone who deserves prison for having sex with a minor. I guess unless you are Michael Jackson., but then you have to watch out for Kervorkian types posing as your friend.

It is interesting that you think only morons talk about how Polanski is not an exception to the rules (unless you are saying that the morons on the other side don't amuse you). This is a pretty unbalanced position, whichever way you mean it.

If he actually does time in America or anywhere other than his current Swiss jail ( I imagine him being guarded by those Swiss Pope guards for some reason.) I'd be amazed.

I concur on this.  The interesting question will be whether or not he gets bail while awaiting the years of rulings and appeals.  My guess:  yes, after a figleaf period of two or three months.

[grumbler]

It is also clear that there was a serious misconduct from the judge during the trial, which somewhat excuses Polanski's flight (but not his original crime).

What, exactly, was this misconduct?  All I have ever been able to find was (1) hearsay testimony about a conversation he supposedly had at a country club, and (2) testimony from the prosecuting and defense attorneys that he was trying to dictate what they would say at the sentencing hearing.

You got more than this?  Because neither of these (the first of which Polanski couldn't have known about" justifies, in any way, Polanski's flight, as far as I can see.

[grumbler]

Oh ok. I thought he would get like years in prison if the judge decided to go for the maximum penalty.

I think you are correct in this.  Several sources have stated that, at the time, the maximum possible sentence was 50 years in prison for this crime.

[Eddie Teach]

Just for giggles, how's all this playing out over on EUOT?  An Atlantic rift not seen since 2003?

Didn't they pull the plug on OT?

[Caliga]

Nope, it's still there and there is a thread on the second page called "Roman Polanski Arrested for Statutory Rape".  I'll check it out... bound to be hilarious.

[Jaron]

Nope, it's still there and there is a thread on the second page called "Roman Polanski Arrested for Statutory Rape".  I'll check it out... bound to be hilarious.

Well? Yes I'm still up and Johan is too scared of me to lift my ban.

[Caliga]

Quote:
Polanski's victim is among those calling for the case to be tossed out. 

Good enough for me, let him go.

This is a nonsense. A 13 year old girl who looks 25, drinks, does drugs and has sex. Thats half the 13 year old girls in the UK.

Maybe if Mr Polanski learns to moonwalk the charges will be dropped

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gwalcmai 
But he did commit a crime afterwards. Every day he spent running from justice after he'd been found guilty was another day of breaking the law. 

The way he has avoided justice I don't think is even a crime in Sweden.

And I don't see how it can be viewed as a crime either as it's not bad for the country in question?

Quote:
Originally Posted by LordLeto 
When was rape legal?

Hard to say. Before XIX century?


Quote:
Originally Posted by Boblof 
Laws aren't there to be cost efficient, in that case we would just shoot every criminal, 5 cents a pop, or we would export them as slave labour and make a buck. Laws are there to 1. protect the individual and revenge wrongs against the same 2. protect society and 3. to deter criminal behaviour.

I think that actually they are... and shooting people is rarely cost effiecent (nor is chaining them)

A lot of large-scale things, like security measures, are designed to be cost effiecent, often putting a price on human life, they just don't often see the public light 

What leaves a bitter taste is the fact that he has been in Switzerland many times before without getting arrested. Apparently he even owns a house in Gstaad. Why this arrest now?
My guess: Probably a try to improve relations with the USA again, which had dropped after the tax evasion schemes of the UBS in the USA came to light. It seems Polanski did pay the price for USA-Swiss agreement on this.

Quote:
Originally Posted by King of Men 
If it was just some random shleb off the street, that nobody had ever heard of, he'd have been locked up with hardly a ripple in the news. In he goes. If he had committed the crime yesterday, there wouldn't be any question about it; why should he be treated leniently because he managed to escape justice for 30 years? If anything that should make it worse. In he goes.

At least here we usually say that if someone has avoided committing a crime for a certain amount of years after you did the crime you succeeded to avoid getting punished for your considered rehabilitated and sentencing you after that would be counter-productive. The only sense in sentencing someone 30 years after they committed a deed and it can be proven that he hasn't committed a crime since is for revenge and statuary example. Neither that I consider should belong in a justice system.

Justice...
Anyone remembers OJ Simpson?

Polański was absolutely guilty due to the local law, however do you guys personally really consider sex with a teen as a heavy crime?

Quote:
Originally Posted by curtis 
How you could honestly not want this man punished for a) conspiring to rape a 13-year old, then acting on that plan and raping a 13-year old and b) fleeing before he was sentenced for the above which he admitted to is totally beyond me.

Don't bother responding you've made my ignore list for this ridiculous stance and others where you see women as prizes to be won and trophies to be captured.

I will bother to answer anyway, even if you read it or not.

A person that commit rape deserves any hell he can get. To be honest such a man deserves little in life.

My point was that there's no point to execute a person for crimes that was done decades ago if the person has been clear from committing any crimes since. All psychological theories show this. Why the heck should society bother to spend millions on a person whom don't deserve anything? Let him rot in France.

And me seeing women as prizes to be won or trophies to be captured I think is an extreme insult.

I do consider it every person's right to try to learn how to be better in making people happy. Getting an companion is an important part in making yourself and your partner happy. This is the stance I have, read the discussions between me and Seil and the fact that I am in an long term relationship if you disagree. I and Seil has very different stance on that topic.

Gender has no importance, females should hunt men and men should hunt females. With the goal to make themselves and their prey happy.

If you would consider my opinion as seeing "women as prices to be won", then you are completely missing that I don't care about "winning" and I don't care about gender. The point is to make the people involved happy.

[Agelastus]

Caliga, some of those posters on EUOT have to be demented.

I have a small, sneaking degree of agreement with Matija's point, as I have had all along. I tend to have sympathy with a victim's point of view on appropriate punishment, so I have to accept that sometimes the victim wants less of a punishment than I think is appropriate.

It is only a small degree of agreement though; the majority of me believes Polanski should be punished as the Californian courts system sees fit (since he entered a guilty plea.)

The rest of the posters that Caliga has excerpted from are so "out there" that all I can say is 

[DGuller]

EUOT is an example of what happens to a forum when stupid people cannot be viciously verbally brutalized.

[Caliga]

Just FYI, I only picked out the posts that amused me the most.  Most of the people posting in the thread actually were supportive of his arrest.  I think it helped that Stoney was one of the earliest posters and kinda held the dike restraining the Sea of EUOT Stupidity back with his finger.

[Ed Anger]

EUOT is an example of what happens to a forum when stupid people cannot be viciously verbally brutalized.

[DisturbedPervert]

the Sea of EUOT Stupidity

It's funny because it's true 

[Martinus]

I guess some of the people (especially in Europe) who oppose Polanski's extradition come from the position that the US is this country with draconic laws that are only marginally better than those of Iran, Saudi Arabia or China. So their position is that by extraditing him to the US - even if he committed the crime - would result in a punishment that people in Europe would consider unjust - for example many people in this thread suggested life imprisonment, whereas I think most Euros would view a penalty of say 3-4 years - taking into account his age, the fact that he reconciled with the victim etc. - to be more appropriate.

Of course this argument is invalidated substantially by the fact that if the French government thought that he should face justice but that he would get an unjust trial/sentence in the US, they should have tried him under the French law in a French court instead, which they didn't (before people start screaming that I'm a shitty lawyer - this kind of jurisdiction over one's citizens is not unusual in European countries, even if the crime is committed abroad and the victim is foreign - check out the Swedish government prosecuting Swedish sex tourists who travel to Thailand).