Polanski: "I can remain silent no longer"

Oscar-winning fugitive director Roman Polanski has issued a statement which, if true (and no one has stepped forward as yet to refute it) should exonerate him once and for all. ). In it, he claims he was sentenced to the California state penitentiary at Chino for the crime, statutory rape,  of which he was accused. He claims he served that time, but, when he was released, a judge said he needed to serve a longer sentence and that's why Polanski fled the country. Now, according to Polanski, the district attorney who prosecuted the case has said, under oath, that Polanski's time in Chino constituted the entire sentence agreed to during plea bargaining.

I don't condone what Polanski did - in fact, I find it utterly reprehensible - but if he has legitimately served his time, he should be allowed to enjoy life as a free man. Not only that, the victim in the case has repeatedly begged California authorities to drop the matter.  The issue is 33 years old now. Let the man live, work and play a free man. He will always be sentenced by public opinion, but the legal beagles should just mark this one "Case Closed."