Not trying to defend Polanski for raping a 13 Y.O., but he wasn't convicted. He plead guilty in a plea agreement that was to send him to jail for 42 days and require counseling. Once he had completed his time, it turned out the judge was manipulating the case for his own publicity as a tough judge, and planned to reject the plea agreement he had agreed to and sentence Polanski to 50 years. That's when Polanski fled to FrancePolanski, the district attorney and the judge made an agreement, Polanski did his part and the judge didn't keep his word. Even the district attorney said later that he would probably have run away too, faced with such a screwed deal. Polanski would have gone to trial instead of pleading had he known what the judge was up to, so he never recieved a fair trial, and was not convicted.