Back in March of 1977, 13-year-old Samantha Geimer was drugged and provided alcohol, by a film director named Roman Polanski. Polanski then proceeded to rape the young girl at the home of Jack Nicholson.

Polanski was arrested for the crime, and he had pleaded guilty to 1 count of having sex with a minor. However, by the time his sentencing came around, he had fled the country. Polanski lived in France for a long time, and then Zurich for a bit. He has lived in countries that do not have an extradition treaty with the United States. This means that the country is not responsible for arresting him and sending him back to the U.S. for sentencing.

The Victim, Samantha Geimer, now 46 doesn’t want Polanski to have to serve any more time. She is “Happy” that Polanski was freed from house arrest by the Swiss government. Back in 1997, Geimer even publicly forgave Polanski of his crimes.

According to Geimer, during trial, the judge was corrupt and dishonest. She said, “(Polanski) served his time and he did everything he was asked to do. We had a corrupt judge who was being dishonest. He had no reason to trust the system was going to work for him, and I’ve been so much more damaged by the court system and by the media than by him.”

Geimer believes that all of the media attention brought on her during the trial, and right after the incident occurred was worse than the actual crime itself. She believes that Polanski has received a punishment and should now be able to go on living a normal life.

“If people want to protect children, then right now there are children being trafficked online, in classified ads. They should do something about things happening now. Going after Roman Polanski doesn’t protect anybody. It just distracts maybe from more important things,” explained Geimer.

Polanski is now 76 years old, and still is not allowed to visit any country which has an extradition treaty with the U.S. If he does, he will be shipped back to be sentenced.

What do you think? Should Polanski be forgiven for his crimes?