Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Roman Polanski asking to be sentenced in absentia

By Douglas A. Berman

As detailed in this new Reuters report, the Roman Polanski case has taken another interesting turn: Fugitive film director Roman Polanski asked a Los Angeles judge on Wednesday to sentence him in his absence on a 1977 charge of having sex with a 13-year-old girl.  Judge Peter Espinoza set a January 22 date for a full hearing on the request, made by Polanski in a notarized document signed December 26 in Switzerland and submitted by the Oscar-winning director's Los Angeles-based lawyer, Chad Hummel. But prosecutors, who have long sought to bring Polanski back to Los Angeles, said they would oppose any bid to sentence him until he turns up physically in court. Polanski, 76, who won an Oscar in 2002 for "The Pianist", is under house arrest at his villa in the ski resort of Gstaad, Switzerland, fighting extradition to the United States...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 06, 2010 (boomark / email).