Absolutely! I actually clerked for a criminal trial judge my first year out of law school and it was occasionally shocking to see some of the deals people were able to make with the prosecutor's office.
Nothing along the lines of child rape being reduced to something as minimal as what Polanski plead to, but still, pretty surprising.
And I agree with you, the victim's forgiveness has nothing to do with how the State should be responding. Our system of justice does not work on the principle that victim's wishes trump the criminal code, sentencing laws, etc. While I feel badly for her in the sense that this has endlessly dragged out over the past 30 years due to his continued fugitive status, the State can't and shouldn't just say, "well, ok, we'll drop the matter because you asked us to."
Bleh. I am so tired of hearing people defend him because hes talented and brilliant . You know, so were Ted Bundy and Adolf Hitler! That doesn't erase or mitigate in any way the atrocity of the crime.
