Legal News

Polanski Suffers Setback in Attempt to Overturn Conviction

By Ashby Jones

One of Roman Polanski’s last, best chances to clear his name, at least from afar, was dashed this afternoon, when a California appellate court denied his attempt to have the case thrown out on grounds of prosecutorial and judicial misconduct. Click here for the early story, from the LAT. Click here for previous LB coverage of L’Affaire Polanski.

In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal 2nd District said a lower court judge did not err last year when he ruled that Polanski had to surrender to U.S. authorities before pursuing the misconduct claims.

According to the LAT, lawyers for Polanski had argued earlier this month that the “fugitive disentitlement doctrine” cited by the lower-court judge on the case did not apply to the filmmaker because of the egregiousness of the misconduct alleged. But in a decision today, the justices disagreed.

“We conclude that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in applying the fugitive disentitlement doctrine and refusing to consider dismissing the action,” Justice Laurie D. Zelon wrote.

One final note here: For all those who feel like the Polanski story’s just a little hard to keep straight, we strongly suggest checking out Jeffrey Toobin’s recent article in the New Yorker on the topic, which provides as clear and coherent retelling of the whole saga as we’ve found anywhere.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on December 21, 2009 (boomark / email).