Nancy Grace

File:Nancy Grace.jpg

Nancy Grace

Nancy Grace (born October 23, 1958 in Macon, Georgia) is an American talk show host and former prosecutor. She frequently discusses issues from a victims' rights standpoint. As of 2006, she is the host of "Nancy Grace," a self-titled CNN Headline News show, also host of "Closing Arguments," a show on Court TV. She has co-authored the book Objection! -- How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System.

Early life

As a student, Grace was a fan of Shakespearean literature, and intended to become an English professor after graduating from college. However, her life was changed after the murder of her fiancé. The incident motivated her to enroll in law school and eventually becoming a felony prosecutor and a supporter of victims' rights.

Grace worked for nearly a decade in the Atlanta-Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney's office as Special Prosecutor. Her work focused on felony cases involving serial murder, serial rape, serial child molestation and arson. At trial, she won nearly one hundred felony convictions at trial with no losses. Some convictions were later overturned by higher courts.

A Law Review graduate of the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University, Grace received her Master of Laws in constitutional and criminal law from New York University. She has written articles and opinion pieces for various law reviews, notably the American Bar Association Journal. Grace worked as a clerk for a federal court judge and practiced antitrust and consumer protection law with the Federal Trade Commission. She taught litigation at the Georgia State University School of Law and business law at GSU's School of Business. As of 2006, she is part of Mercer University's board of trustees and adopted a section of the street surrounding the law school.

Prosecutor

Mismatched statements regarding fiancé's murder trial

In March 2006 an article in the New York Observer suggested that Grace had embellished the story of her fiancé's murder and the ensuing trial to make it better support her image.

• Her fiancé, Keith Griffin, was shot not by a random stranger on the street, but by a former coworker.
• Tommy McCoy, who was convicted of the killing, was five years younger than Grace said and did not have a prior criminal record.
• Rather than constantly denying the crime, McCoy confessed the night of the murder.
• The jury deliberated for a few hours, not days, as Grace said.
• Prosecutors asked for the death penalty without consulting Grace. Both the defense and the prosecutors believe that the jury chose life imprisonment instead of death penalty because McCoy was mildly retarded in addition to having no prior criminal record.
• There was no ongoing string of appeals (McCoy's family did not want any). McCoy has only once filed a habeas petition, which was rejected.
• The killing occurred in 1979, not 1980, and Griffin was two years younger than Grace has claimed.

Grace told the Observer she had not looked into the case in many years and "(tried) not to think about it." She said she was told initially that McCoy had denied the crime (the officer who took him into custody said he remained silent during his entire trip to jail). She said she made her previous statements about the case "with the knowledge I had." Her mother told the paper she has repeatedly advised her daughter to let it go.

Commentary from state and federal Appellate courts

Although Grace never lost a felony case at trial, a few of her convictions have been overturned on appeal.

The Georgia Supreme Court has commented on Grace twice, first in a 1994 heroin trafficking case, Bell v. State, in which it was said that she "exceeded the wide latitude of closing argument" by referring to the defendant's prior convictions for violent felonies which were not at issue in the case (Bell v. State, 263 Ga. 776 (1994)).

In 1997, the court was more severe. Although its decision overturning the murder-arson conviction of businessman Wayne Weldon Carr in the death of his wife turned primarily on other issues, the court made note of Grace's court actions, saying "inappropriate and illegal conduct in the course of the trial," as well as, "We conclude that the conduct of the prosecuting attorney in this case demonstrated her disregard of the notions of due process and fairness, and was inexcusable." [1]

• Her opening statement in the case promised the jury evidence of physical abuse that she had to know would never be admissible, since that entire aspect of the case had already been excluded by the judge.
• Subpoenas that contained hearing dates Grace knew to be false.
• Failure to disclose a full witness list to the defense in a timely fashion.
• Showing a chart during closing arguments that falsely stated a defense expert had not contradicted the state's case on a key issue.
• Also, during closing argument, "vouching" for the case by telling the jury she herself believed Carr to be guilty.
• And finally, performing two illegal searches of Carr's house, including one in which she was accompanied by a CNN camera crew.

While the court said its reversal was not due to these transgressions, since the case had turned primarily on circumstantial evidence, it nevertheless concluded "the conduct of the prosecuting attorney in this case demonstrated her disregard of the notions of due process and fairness, and was inexcusable." Carr was freed in 2004 when a judge ruled Fulton County had waited too long to retry him.

Courts that have upheld convictions on cases Grace was involved with have been critical of her conduct. In a 2005 opinion, a panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said Grace "played fast and loose" with her ethical duties and failed to "fulfill her responsibilities" as a prosecutor in the 1990 triple murder trial of Herbert Connell Stephens. She failed to turn over evidence that pointed to other suspects to his defense. The court noted that it was "difficult to conclude that Grace did not knowingly" elicit false testimony from a police investigator that there were no other suspects despite strong evidence to the contrary. [2] [3]

Victims' rights support

Grace helped staff a hotline at an Atlanta battered women’s center for 10 years.

Broadcaster

Public criticism of potential media bias

The criticism of Nancy Grace stems from the belief that personal bias and beliefs overwhelm her legalistic reasoning. Grace has been criticized for her aggressive interviewing and tendency to declare unconvicted individuals guilty on the air. Grace has been known to attack defense attorneys, but spends little to no time covering the misconduct of prosecutors. [4] [5] Grace has received strong criticism for her public comments about trials involving the Michael Jackson trial, the Scott Peterson trial, the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping, and the John Mark Karr story.

Suicide of interviewee

In 2006, Grace was involved in an incident reported heavily in US and international media when a 21 year old woman, Melinda Duckett, committed suicide following an interview given by Grace concerning the disappearance of Duckett's 2 year old son.

Duckett had reported her son missing to police on August 27 having finished watching a film, telling them that she returned to her son's room to find his bed empty and a 10in slit in a window screen in his room.

Grace had interviewed Duckett the day before her suicide, during which she banged her desk and attacked Duckett for her perceived lack of openness regarding her son's disappearance, asking Duckett "Where were you? Why aren't you telling us where you were that day?" Duckett appeared to become confused, and was unsure if she had taken a polygraph test. When Grace asked her "why" she had not given out specific details, Duckett began to reply "Because I was told not...", to which Grace responded "Ms Duckett, you are not telling us for a reason. What is the reason? You refuse to give even the simplest facts of where you were with your son before he went missing. It is day twelve..." Grace then allowed Duckett a reply before cutting to a media psychologist.

Police investigating the case had not named Melinda Duckett as a suspect in the case at the time, but after her suicide the police did say that she was a suspect from the begining. Melinda Duckett is now, according to Florida police, the primary suspect in her son's dissapearance. (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-bk-duckett-092106,0,5967295.story?coll=orl-home-headlines)

The next day, Duckett shot herself to death, a death which relatives claim was influenced by media scrutiny, especially from Grace.

Speaking to the The Orlando Sentinel, Duckett's grandfather Bill Eubank said, "Nancy Grace and the others, they just bashed her to the end... She wasn't one anyone ever would have thought of to do something like this. She and that baby just loved each other, couldn't get away from each other. She wouldn't hurt a bug."

While describing it as an "extremely sad development," Janine Iamunno, a spokeswoman for Grace, said that her program would continue to follow the case as they had a "responsibility to bring attention to this case in the hopes of helping find Trenton Duckett"

Grace herself however said "I do not feel that our show is to blame for what happened to Melinda Duckett... The truth... is not always nice or polite or easy to go down. Sometimes it's harsh, and it hurts".

Elizabeth Smart kidnapping

During the Smart case, when suspect Richard Ricci was arrested by police on the basis that he had a criminal record and had worked on the Smarts' home, Grace immediately and repeatedly proclaimed on CourtTV and CNN's Larry King that Ricci "was guilty", although there was little evidence to support this claim. She also suggested publically that Ricci's girlfriend was involved in the coverup of his alleged crime. Grace continued to malign Ricci, though he has since died.

It was later revealed that Smart was kidnapped by Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, two individuals with whom Richard Ricci had no connection.

The Michael Jackson Trial

When discussing the Jackson case on air she could be seen taking out the book The Boy: A Photographic Essay and talk about the pictures of naked boys in the book. If someone is defending Jackson, she will put the book and put it in front of her face, and say , "Oh, I am sorry, what were you saying? I was too busy looking at the book The Boy, it has tons of naked boys in it! It was found in Jackson's bedroom!" (The book was found in Michael Jackson's bedroom when police raided his home on child molestation charges.)

The Scott Peterson Trial

Quotes from Grace:

"In my mind, he seems guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," she told King's viewers in April 2003--eight days after Peterson was charged and more than a year before his trial would begin.

One night on CNN's Larry King Live Lee Peterson the father of Scott Peterson called into the show to talk with Nancy:

Lee Peterson: "You are speculating on these facts as much as I am."

Grace: "(Peterson continues, but Grace talks over his comments) And you are believing what your son is telling you."

Lee Peterson: "Please don't interrupt me. You've had your say here for months and you've crucified my son on national media. And he's a wonderful man. You have no idea of his background and what a wonderful son and wonderful man he is. You have no knowledge of that and you sit there as a judge and jury, I guess, you're convicting him on national media. And you should absolutely be ashamed of that."

Grace: "I think who should be ashamed of themselves is whoever is responsible for the death of Laci Peterson. And lashing out at me, I completely understand where you are coming from. I'm simply stating what has been leaked or what has been put in formal documents. If you find them disturbing, I suggest you ask your son about some of them, sir."

Lee Peterson: "There you go Nancy, look at this look on Nancy's face. You absolutely hate my son. I don't know what it is. (Grace begins speaking again) Does he remind you of someone?"

Grace: "No, no I don't hate your son. But I hate what happened to Laci." [6]

Scott Peterson was found guilty of the crime on November 12, 2004 and, consistent with the jury's recommendation, awaits the death sentence handed down on March 16, 2005.

Author

Nancy Grace co-authored the book, Objection! -- How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System which was published by Hyperion on June 8, 2005.

Controversy

Plagiarism

According to an article first published by the New York Daily News in September 2006, Nancy Grace plagiarized 359 words spread across two pages in her book. Hyperion, the book's publisher, accepted Grace's claim that the plagiarism was an "inadvertent error" but insisted that Grace send a letter to The Times to promise that the error would be corrected in future prints. Nancy Grace reportedly refused to write any such letter and it was not made clear whether or not Grace intends on correcting the error in future copies. Hyperion explained that under contract, Nancy Grace must hold the publisher harmless in the event that The Times would file a lawsuit against her.

Potential issues related to Media Bias

Missing white women

Grace has been criticized as one of the prime media practitioners of "missing white woman syndrome"[7]. She has given the Natalee Holloway case a lot of attention, but has also vigorously defended Jennifer Wilbanks, the Atlanta-area woman who staged her own disappearance. Despite evidence showing planning and intent to deceive, Grace was opposed to the idea that Wilbanks, who later pled guilty to making false statements, should be charged with anything.

In recent times, Grace has started airing cases of people who have gone missing or who have been victimized and aren't receiving the same high-profile national attention. Many of these cases involve African-American women and children.

References

• 11th Circuit Court: 'Nancy Grace 'Played Fast and Loose' With Ethics'
• 11th Circuit Court: Opinion on Grace's misconduct
• Nancy Grace Interview
• Dana, Rebecca; March 6, 2006; Did Nancy Grace, Crimebuster, Muddy her Myth?, New York Observer.

External links

• CNN's Nancy Grace Show
• Nancy Grace Fan club
• CNN's Bio of Nancy Grace
• CNN Transcript: Interview with Larry King
• CNN Transcript: "Nancy Grace" Show
• CourtTV: Bio of Nancy Grace
• "Reading Nancy Grace", by Said Shirazi.
• Pictures of Nancy Grace