rape

No, I'm not about to contradict the article I wrote yesterday concerning Roman Polanski's deserved punishment. Yet while the case of Polanski illustrates the importance of honoring the philosophical traditions of justice, pure justice as I called it, it also illustrates a justice system gone horribly wrong.

Last night I watched the documentary film "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" and if you get beyond the film maker's attempt to humanize Polanski, what you get is a picture of a dysfunctional judicial system. Let's get to the plea bargain and the influence of Polanski's fame later, since it is the most important issue in my mind. First let's look at why Polanski fled the country.

The question of what exactly justice is has been debated since the days of Socrates and Plato. This week we have a case that raises this debate anew. I consider the case of film director Roman Polanski an issue over what is justice in its purest sense.

Thirty two years ago, Roman Polanski drugged a 13 year old model who was posing for him, and engaged in various sex acts with her including intercourse while she was in a compromised state and could not resist his advances. The victim won a judgment in a civil suit and Polanski plead guilty to a lesser charge (i.e. statutory rape rather than a host of other charges of which he was originally charged). When Polanski got the impression that his sentence would be stiffer than expected he fled the country, settling in France from where he could not be extradited to the States. When he visited Switzerland this past Saturday he was arrested. (Why after several trips to Switzerland over the years, they suddenly decided to arrest him is a topic for another post.)

The notion of punishment in our criminal justice system usually has three motivating drivers:

1. Compensation to the victim: We punish the criminal to right the wrong committed against the victim.
2. Protection of society: We punish the criminal to influence him not to commit his crime again.