Information AboutNancy Grace |
Nancy Ann Grace (born October 23 , 1958 ) is an American Talk Show Host and former Prosecutor . She frequently discusses issues from what she describes as a " Victims' Rights " standpoint. As of 2007 , she is the host of ''Nancy Grace'', a self-titled Headline News show, and was the host of Court TV 's ''Closing Arguments''. She also 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 Grace was born in Macon, Georgia to a working-class family.Mentioned on ''The Glenn Beck Show'', 12/8/06 As a student, Grace was a Fan of Shakespearean literature, and intended to become an English professor after graduating from college. However, after the Murder of her fiancé, Keith Griffin, when she was 19, Grace decided to enroll in law school and went on to become a felony Prosecutor and a supporter of Victims' Rights . CNN "Anchors & Reporters" profile CNN.com A Law Review member and graduate of the Walter F. George School Of Law at Mercer University , Grace received her Masters in constitutional and criminal law from New York University . She has written articles and opinion pieces for legal periodicals, including 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 College 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. CAREER AS PROSECUTOR 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. While Grace won nearly 100 felony cases at trial without any losses, some convictions were later overturned on appeal. Grace decided to leave the prosecutors' office after the District Attorney she had been working under decided not to run for reelection. ''Larry King Live; Interview with Nancy Grace'' CNN transcript. Aired February 20, 2005 Allegations of prosecutorial misconduct The Supreme Court Of Georgia has commented on Grace twice. First, in a 1994 Heroin trafficking case, ''Bell v. State'', the Court said that she "exceeded the wide latitude of closing argument" by drawing comparisons to unrelated murder and rape cases, and declared a mistrial.1 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 was caused primarily by other issues, the court made note of Grace's court actions, citing "inappropriate and illegal conduct in the course of the trial."
While the court said its reversal was not due to these transgressions, since the case had turned primarily on 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. 1th Circuit Court: Opinion on Grace's misconduct May 2, 2005 CAREER AS BROADCASTER After leaving the Fulton County prosecutors' office, Grace was approached by and accepted an offer from Court TV founder , 2007 The Foundation of American Women in Radio & Television has presented Nancy Grace with two Gracie Awards for her Court TV show. Controversial broadcasts Grace's CNN show, has been criticized for distorting, oversimplifying and sensationalizing complex legal issues.Dahlia Lithwick (September. 15, 2006), , the Scott Peterson trial, the 2006 Duke University Lacrosse Case , the Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping , and the John Mark Karr story. Presumed Guilty: Trial by Fury March 8, 2005 Suicide of interviewee In 2006, Grace was involved in an incident reported heavily in U.S. and international media when a 21-year-old woman, . 14 September , 2006 Grace interviewed Duckett less than two weeks after the child went missing, questioning 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?" Transcript of Nancy Grace show - . 14 September , 2006 The next day before the airing of the show, Duckett shot herself, a death which relatives claim was influenced by media scrutiny, particularly from Grace. Mother of Missing Boy Commits Suicide September 13, 2006 CNN guest kills herself after gruelling questions - . 14 September , 2006 In an interview with "Good Morning America," Nancy Grace said in reaction to events that "If anything, I would suggest that guilt made her commit suicide. To suggest that a 15 or 20 minute interview can cause someone to commit suicide is focusing on the wrong thing." She then said while she sympathized with the family, she knew from her own experience as a victim of crime that such people look for somebody else to blame. Nancy Grace Says 'Guilt' Likely Made Mother Commit Suicide September 15, 2006 While describing it as an "extremely sad development," Janine Iamunno, a spokeswoman for Grace, CNN guest kills herself after gruelling questions - . 14 September , 2006 On November 21, 2006, Thesmokinggun.com exposed pending litigation on behalf of the estate of Melinda Duckett, asserting a Wrongful Death claim against CNN and Grace. The attorney for the estate alleges that Grace should be held responsible for the suicide and traumatizing the family, regardless of whether it is ultimately determined that Duckett murdered her own son.Susan Filan, MSNBC , ''Lawsuit against Nancy Grace a long shot'' , Nov 21, 2006. Retrieved May 28, 2007. Nancy Grace Sued For Wrongful Death November 21, 2006 Death of Anna Nicole Smith Grace's show did regular and extensive coverage on Anna Nicole Smith through 2006, when Smith's son, Daniel, died. On February 21 , 2007 , Grace said that the judge handling the paternity case over Smith's daughter was not following any type of rules in the courtroom. Grace physically threw a book, representing a rule book, and stated that there were no rules used in the courtroom and with that, it was not representing our justice system. Grace was not the only one to criticize the Judge Larry Seidlin's bizarre behavior, most legal experts did. The trial was frequently called a "circus", with CNN.com publishing an article called "If Anna Nicole Smith case is a circus, judge is ringmaster". He called all lawyers by their states, instead of names; called Anna Nicole Smith's mother "mama", etc. When delivering his verdict, he cried and was sometimes hard to understand. Grace bashed him for this. 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 publicly that Ricci's girlfriend was involved in the coverup of his alleged crime. Grace continued to accuse 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. When Grace was specifically confronted on CourtTV seven months later as to whether she was 'incorrect' that Ricci "was guilty", and whether she felt bad about it in any way, she stated that Ricci was a known ex-con, a known felon, and brought suspicion on himself "so who could blame anyone for claiming he was the perpetrator". When Larry King asked her about the matter she equated criticism of herself with criticism of the police in the case. She said: "I'm not letting you take the police with me on a guilt trip." On July 19, 2006, Grace interviewed Smart, who appeared on behalf of a bill requiring sex offenders to register with their state of residence. Despite Smart's objection, Grace pressed Smart with questions about her abduction, relenting only when Smart said, "I really—I really—to be frankly honest, I really do not appreciate you bringing all this up." The Michael Jackson trial During the investigation related to the on air she would often be seen taking out the book and talking about the pictures of naked boys in the book. Larry King Live interview June 7, 2005 If a guest was defending Jackson, she would use the book as a prop in front of her face, and repeatedly mention that she was too busy looking at the naked photographs in the book found in Jackson's residence to hear what the guest was saying. Grace insisted that there is no difference between a legal art book with nudes and child pornography. Duke Lacrosse case A video montage on '' The Daily Show '' (12 April 2007) showed Grace repeatedly taking the side of the rape accuser in the 2006 Duke University Lacrosse Case , and regularly changing her logic regarding the use of DNA data. When talking to Stephen Miller of the Duke Conservative Union, who expressed concern that the students may have been falsely accused, Grace shouted "Oh Good Lord!" and then proceeded to say, "You are saying that...your first problem is two innocent people?" Also in the montage, on June 9, 2006, a guest commented that the filings by the defense showed reasonable doubt. Grace accused them of prematurely taking sides, and then said, "Why do not we all just move to Nazi Germany, where we do not have a justice system and a jury of one's peers?" On 12 April 2007 North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper dismissed all the charges against the three defendants. That night Nancy Grace did not appear on her show; instead, guest host Jane Velez-Mitchell presented. She has not yet commented on the dismissal and her public statements regarding this case. Chris Benoit case While covering the murder-suicide case involving World Wrestling Entertainment wrestler Chris Benoit and his family, Grace made several inaccurate statements about the wrestler and demonstrated a severe lack of knowledge or research into the topic, suggesting that Benoit was depressed about being recently demoted from a wrestling " Stable " that had not existed for years -- and in fact never existed in WWE -- and being transferred to a Brand that he was not currently on.2 She also presented a list of wrestlers who had died of "drug or otherwise non-accidental" causes before 45, which included the wrestlers Junkyard Dog who died in a car accident, Owen Hart who died in a well publicized freak accident, Bruiser Brody who was stabbed before a match, in addition to Benoit's Own Wife and André The Giant , who had perished from heart failure due to his size. OTHER WORK 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 . According to an article first published by the '' New York Daily News '' during September 2006, Grace plagiarized 359 words spread across pages 204 and 205 in the book, lifted without indication from a 5 August 2002 article in the New York Times written by Sabra Chartrand. 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 content would be corrected in future printings. Hyperion explained that under contract, Grace must hold the publisher harmless in the event that ''The Times'' would file a lawsuit against her. Grace reportedly declined the request. Nancy Falling From Grace Over Book September 25, 2006 - ''New York Daily News'' Grace has also helped staff a hotline at an Atlanta battered women’s center for 10 years. PERSONAL LIFE Allegations regarding fiancé's murder 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.3 The New York Observer researched the murder and found several apparent contradictions between the events and Grace's subsequent statements, including the following:
Grace told the ''Observer'' she had not looked into the case in many years and "(tried) not to think about it". She said she made her previous statements about the case "with the knowledge I had." In response to MSNBC's Keith Olbermann 's claims in a March 2007 '' Rolling Stone '' interview where he was quoted as saying, "Anybody who would embellish the story of their own fiancé's murder should spend that hour a day not on television but in a psychiatrist's chair," Grace stated: "I did not put myself through law school and fight for all those years for crime victims to waste one minute of my time, my energy and my education in a war of words with Keith Olbermann, whom I've never met or had any disagreement with....I feel we have X amount of time on Earth, and that when we give into our detractors or spend needless time on silly fights, I think that's abusing the chance we have to do something good."45 Marriage and motherhood In April 2007, Grace married David Linch, an Atlanta investment banker in a small private ceremony. The two had met while she was studying at Mercer College in the '70s. Grace, who had given up on marriage after the death of her fiance said, "We've been in touch all these years and a lot of time we were separated by geography and time," she says. "It was a spur-of-the-moment decision to get married. I told my family only two days before the wedding." On June 26, 2007 an emotional Grace announced on her CNN talk show that her life had "taken a U-turn" in that she is pregnant and is expecting twins with her husband in January 2008. Nancy Grace: Married and Expecting Twins June 26, 2007 First Photo: CNN’s Nancy Grace Pregnant With Twins! June 26, 2007 GRACE IN POPULAR CULTURE Parodies and characters based on Grace Grace has been parodied on several comedy programs, and several charactes based on her persona have appeared on various television shows. Among the shows featuring parodies of Grace or a character based on Grace:
"Law and Order" connection The '' Law And Order '' programs, which are legal procedural programs, often base their fictional stories on real-life events and have featured stories based on Grace on several occasions. In an episode of '''' by a character named Faith Yancy who hosts a similar talk show. Grace herself appeared on ''. She played herself and was featured opposite Star Jones Reynolds . Nancy Grace takes first acting role March 6, 2007 NOTES EXTERNAL LINKS
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