Updated

The so called "Barefoot Bandit" should be going to jail, not preening for a role in books and TV.

Roman Polanski should be going to jail for fleeing, not flitting about Europe taking bows.

To my ears, both of them have been romanticized to a point that many believe they shouldn't have to pay for their crimes.

Much of the sympathy for both men stems from the fact that they both faced great tragedy in their lives. I understand, to a point.

With Colton Harris Mooren, his father apparently abused him and left the family when he was only two.

Polanski lost his mother in the Holocaust, and his wife and unborn baby to the murderous rage of the Manson "family".

But Pokanski also raped a girl who was only 13, and then fled before sentencing.

And the Barefoot Bandit hurt a lot of innocent people....even taunting them with his bare feet and garnering a celebrity status along the way. That's not fair to his victims.

Polanski is a free man after the Swiss refused to extradite him.

The motto I remember as a prosecutor rings true "you do the crime, you do the time"...

Lis Wiehl is a Fox News legal analyst and author.

Fox Forum is on Twitter. Follow us @fxnopinion.