Shouldn't the judicial system decide this, not celebrities?

I had heard a little bit about this story recently but today I finally read the whole thing and frankly, it ticks me off that this guy expects to get away with what he did.

According to the article, in March of 1977, film director Roman Polanski (age 44 at the time) fed a 13 year old girl champagne and sedatives. According to the girl's grand jury testimony, Polanski then raped her. He agreed to plead guilty and was convicted of statutory rape, a lesser charge. He spent 42 days in a mental facility and apparently was led to believe that it would be considered "time served" and he would be put on probation. When he discovered that the judge intended to put him in jail, he jumped bail and went to France.

He's been living comfortably in France for the last three decades until last Saturday. He flew to Zurich to attend a film festival and was picked up by Swiss authorities who had a longstanding agreement with the U.S.

He's being held awaiting extradition back to the U.S.

In the middle of all of this, it seems half of Hollywood has come together to protest the extradition attempt, criticizing authoritities for pursuing Polanski after such a long time. many celebrities such as Debra Winger, Harrison Ford and Whoopi Goldberg are writing letters and speaking out. Whoopi went as far as making a statement on "The View," where she is a cohost.

"I know it wasn't 'rape' rape. I think it was something else, but I don't believe it was 'rape' rape," said Goldberg, dismissing the possibility that Polanski had forced himself on anyone.
"He pled guilty to having sex with a minor and he went to jail, and when they let him out (on bail, pending sentencing), he said, 'You know what, this guy's going to give me 100 years in jail. I'm not staying.' And that's why he left.
"So that's why I wanted to be really clear," Goldberg said, "cause I want to know exactly what I'm talking about."



First off, I've never been much of a fan of Whoopi Goldberg. She's okay, but I've never found her as funny as some do. After that comment, I'm never watching anything with her in it ever again.
If I had the chance, I'd like to ask her just what her definition of rape is versus "rape rape." Obviously she's never been taken advantage of by a man or she'd realize that rape is rape is rape.

Whoopi aside, I don't understand why all of these celebrities are banding together to defend the guy. He raped a 13 year old girl and ran away from the consequences. He's been living a cushy life for over 30 years when he should have served time in prison for such a heinous act.

Just because it happened a long time ago and some celeb says it's a "gross miscarriage of justice" and Polanski is a "humanist" he's supposed to get away with this?
I don't think so.

Reading this article, I started to wonder how Harrison Ford or Harvey Weinstein, supporters of Polanski, would feel if that girl from 1977 had been their daughter. If either of them are anything like a lot of the fathers I know, life in prison wouldn't be enough to make up for what that monster did to their little girl.

It baffles me that so many people think Polanski should get away with this. It shouldn't matter if it happened 30 years or 3 days ago. He still raped a girl. The only reason this is an issue now is because he ran away! What right does he have to decide that he's not going to pay the price for what was done to that girl?

As for the "gross micarriage of justice" that these celebs think is playing out, I think it's merely justice that's been a long time coming. It's certainly not any kind of miscarriage. He deserves to serve time in prison. He should not get to go back to his easy life in France simply because he's managed to string this situation along for so many years.

I have read a few more articles about this situation and apparently the victim has joined the bid for dismissal of the case. At some point, she sued Polanski and recieved an undisclosed settlement and now just wants the case to be over. I can understand her feelings in the matter but I still think he needs to own up and take responsibility for what he did. It doesn't seem right that he can pay a sum of money and not serve the jail time because he had the resources to run away from the problem.