Blogs in Focus: Editors Blog

Sometimes a movie can make a difference. Errol Morris' 1988 The Thin Blue Line helped get Randall Adams off death row in Texas. Today the New York Times reports on another forensic film. Michael Cieply reports how Roman Polanski and his lawyer have requested the Los Angeles District Attorney's office to review Marina Zenovich's new documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. As we all remember in 1978 Roman Polanski was arrested and stood trial for the rape of a 13-year old girl. As shown in the documentary, mounting sentiment against him and biased maneuvering in the Judge's office, convinced Polanski the could not receive a fair trial and so he left the country and has been living in exile in Paris ever since. Fearing prosecution and imprisonment, Polanski has been unable to return, not even when he was nominated for and won an Academy Award for Best Director for The Pianist in 2002. Polanski's lawyer Douglas Dalton told the Times that "There could be a motion to dismiss based on prosecutorial misconduct." But at the moment, no one--not Polanski, nor the D.A.--is doing anything, except possibly watching documentaries.