George Harris Kansas City Star Reader Advisory Panel 2008

Famed film director Roman Polanski now faces extradition from Switzerland for the rape of a 13 year old girl in Los Angeles in 1977. He lives in France but was visiting Switzerland to receive an award when he was arrested.

France has no extradition agreement with the United States, but Polanski has traveled widely across Europe over the years after fleeing the U.S. to avoid imprisonment on the rape charge.

Why the Los Angeles prosecutor pressed for the arrest now isn't entirely clear but doesn't seem relevant. Polanski had plead guilty to the rape charge but thought he had a plea agreement. When the judge wouldn't accept the deal, Polanski fled.

Maybe Polanski has a legitimate complaint that his plea was contingent on the acceptance of the plea bargain. But that's a matter that should be addressed in an American court.

There is sympathy in some quarters for Polanski. His wife, Sharon Tate, had been brutally murdered by the Manson cult, and Polanski was ten years old when his parents were exterminated by Nazi Germany.

But the horrors of his life do not automatically mitigate a criminal offense. It is possible that a psychological exam might argue that his losses somehow caused him to rape a child. And it's possible a jury would believe it. But a jury never got that chance.

Polanski has been married now for two decades. And the victim of the rape says she wants the charges dropped. She is married and apparently doesn't want the grief of revisiting the trauma, or maybe she has forgiven Polanski. She did accept a settlement with him after a civil lawsuit.

But the way for the crime to be addressed and the case resolved is still in an American court.