Polanski is a felon and a fugitive. If nothing else he should be brought back to be sentenced and to serve whatever time the judge decides. Regardless of the initial crime, the fleeing is worth 2-5 alone IMO.

Polanski may not be the felon MOST worthy of extradition, but I’m not aware of any law that says we can only do one at a time. That there may be a cop killer in Mexico we can’t get our hands on, or a multiple murder in some other country that won’t extradite because we’ll kill them as they deserve.

Polanski’s fame shouldn’t shield him, nor should his political positions, and as for his movies, maybe they tell a little about what is going on in his head.

Obviously Polanski is guilty of a crime, but 32 years have gone by. He is a very old man. The victim has long since forgiven him. Additionally, Polanski has made significant cultural contributions over many years, and has himself during his lifetime been a victim of far worse crimes. His mother died at Auschwitz. His father was imprisoned at Mathhausen. His pregnant wife was murdered by the Manson family. Is Polanski really the fugitive from US justice most worthy of extradition?

1) She was 13 years old – thus legally unable to give consent – and he knew it at the time (he admitted as much later, under oath). Further…

2) She testified that she told him “no” several times anyway, at several junctures.

3) In a plea bargain, he pled guilty to a single lesser charge in exchange for being jailed for 90 days for psychiatric evaluation. He served only 42 days, and was – improperly – released by the jail psychiatrist as “not a risk to the community.” The judge declared the intent to return him to serve the remaining 48 days – and to press him to “voluntarily exile himself.”

4) He thus still owes the court that 48 days of jail time – possibly plus a penalty for evading serving the rest of his agreed-upon sentence.

He is, in fact, a confessed felon and a fugitive from justice.

End of story.

Some things are simply WRONG. They are WRONG even if the circumstances were sordid, the victim complaisant, and the perpetrator a genius. It was WRONG thirty years ago and it remains WRONG today.

Another point of view re Polansky, from NYM:

I tend to view the Polanski affair, not as an authentic case of rape, but as a payment dispute in which one side is able to whistle up the assistance of the criminal law.
...

I only ask that he be imprisoned for one day….or however long it takes for him to encounter the biggest, baddest fellow inmate in the shower…...so that he may experience the helplessness that he imposed on his victim.

Fugitive… check

Jail… check

Hester Prynne??? You’re joking, I hope.

And yes, I like his movies. So what?