Polish-born film director Roman Polanski during a burial ceremony for French film maker Claude Berri, in Montrouge, France, Jan. 15, 2009. (AP)

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In 1977, film director Roman Polanski — “Chinatown,” “Tess,” “The Pianist” – was indicted for drugging, raping and sodomizing a 13-year-old girl in LA.

He pled guilty to a single charge, spent 45 days in confinement, then fled the country for Europe.

Last Saturday he was arrested in Switzerland. The U.S. wants him back.

The details of the case are disturbing. The post-arrest reaction across the Atlantic, fascinating.

This hour we’ll hear it. Geraldine Ferraro says lock him up. French luminary Bernard Henri-Levy says let him go. They’re with us. Plus The New York Times’ David Carr.

This hour, On Point: Judging Roman Polanski.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Montclair, N.J., is David Carr, columnist and reporter for The New York Times covering media and culture. He also writes for the Times’ Media Decoder blog and writes the Oscar-season blog The Carpetbagger.

From New York City we’re joined by Bernard-Henri Levy. A writer, journalist, philosopher and public intellectual, he recently authored a petition, posted at The Huffington Post, calling for Polanski’s immediate release and signed by such luminaries as Milan Kundera, Salman Rushdie, Isabelle Adjani and Isabelle Huppert. His recent books include “Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against the New Barbarism” and “American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville.”

Joining us from New York City is Geraldine Ferraro, attorney and former U.S. Congresswoman from New York. She was the first woman to be nominated for vice president by a major party, when she ran on the Democratic ticket with Walter Mondale in 1984. She is now a principal with Blank Rome LLP, a law practice and lobbying firm. She has argued strongly for prosecuting Roman Polanski. In the late 1970s, as assistant district attorney for Queens County, New York, Ferraro led the newly created Special Victims Bureau, prosecuting cases involving rape and child abuse.

A forensic scientist trainee looks over bullet casings at a forensics lab in Richmond, Va., in July 2008. (AP)

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If your image of crime labs comes from shows like “CSI,” get ready for a shocker: a landmark report released yesterday by the National Academy of Sciences says we’ve got a problem when it comes to forensic science.

From fingerprints and ballistics to blood splatter and bite marks, America’s crime labs just aren’t cutting it. The report calls for a major overhaul — and calls into question decades of cases based on forensic evidence.

How we move forward will have a far-reaching impact on crime labs, courts — and American criminal justice.

This hour, On Point: Crime labs, and the future of forensics.

You can join the conversation. Have you ever wondered about the validity of forensic evidence? How it’s used in court? Do you have first-hand experience?

-Jane Clayson, guest host

Tom Ashbrook is on vacation this week.

Guests:

Harry Edwards, co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences panel that put out the new report, “Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward.” He’s a senior Circuit Judge and Chief Judge Emeritus for the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia Circuit.

James Doyle, director of the Center for Modern Forensic Practice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. A veteran litigator, he’s the author of “True Witness: Cops, Courts, Science, and the Battle against Misidentification.”

Barry Fisher, director of the Los Angeles County Crime Laboratory. In 1969 he joined the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department crime laboratory and has worked in most of the sections of the laboratory. He’s past president of the American Academy of Forensic Science and the American Academy of Crime Laboratory Directors.

Barry Scheck, co-founder and co-director of The Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people. He served on O.J. Simpson’s defense team, winning an acquittal in 1995 at Simpson’s murder trial.

More links:

Today’s Los Angeles Times runs a big piece on the new NAS report, along with an opinion piece by UCLA Law School’s Jennifer L. Mnookin.