As much as I was appalled by the demeanor and backstory of Casey Anthony during her recent trial, tuning into her 24/7 nemesis on HLN, Nancy Grace (weeknights 8PM), made the accused killer seem quite sympathetic by comparison. Grace — a shrill, overfed bottle-blonde — is the judicial world's answer to hyper-drawling Paula Deen — she just can't make fritters, y'all! To boot, she never met a controversial trial she didn't see as mere ratings fodder: no matter the guilt or innocence of the accused, she is ever-poised to rush to judgment.
Whatever the actual facts are in the Caylee Anthony disappearance and murder, Grace's zeal to hop on the bandwagon (she's the one who coined that absurd "Tot Mom" moniker) should make one mindful of her checkered past both as prosecutor and broadcaster. Let's not forget that she was censured several times by the Georgia Supreme Court, contributing to the overturning of several verdicts she was involved in prosecuting. "The conduct of the prosecuting attorney in this case demonstrated her disregard of the notions of due process and fairness, and was inexcusable," the court ruled, and the murder/arson defendant was eventually freed.
Okay, so she was a lousy and unprincipled prosecutor — that must mean she's more than eminently qualified to be a TV commentator, eh? A quick look at her record finds that her frontal style and disregard for due process (or facts, for that matter) have resulted in some egregious lapses of judgment. Most heinous of all was her pro-prosecution stance during the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case — in which three members of that team were falsely accused of raping a stripper who'd appeared at a frathouse party.
You'll recall that the prosecutor, Mike Nifong, was subsequently disbarred for misconduct, and Ms. Grace(less) curiously failed to appear on her show the next day to apologize for her overheated rhetoric and prejudging of the defendants. "I'm so glad they didn't miss a lacrosse game over a little thing like gang rape," Grace had said in her sniping, vituperative manner of the young men. She has not to this date made a public comment defending herself for possibly prejudicing the case.
Sometimes, let us not forget, Ms. Grace's hip-firing style has resulted in far worse than a miscarriage of justice. In 2006, she callously grilled 21-year-old Melinda Duckett, whose 2-year-old son, Trenton, had been missing for two weeks at the time. The following day, traumatized by Ms. Grace's hectoring style, Ms. Duckett killed herself with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. CNN had to cough up $200K last year to Duckett's estate for Grace's perceived role in the wrongful death, money that will supposedly go toward helping find the missing child. Grace, of course, was unrepentant. "I'd rather take the criticism than hide truth," she said mock-heroically.
We could go on and on and on. How Nancy Grace prematurely declared the guilt of Richard Ricci in the kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart, and that his girlfriend was involved in the cover-up — both assertions patently false as it turned out. When asked about Ricci seven months later, she said he was "a known ex-con, a known felon, and brought suspicion on himself, so who could blame anyone for claiming he was the perpetrator?" Who? Someone with respect for due process, that's who, Ms. Bigmouth Former Prosecutor. I hate to diss Nancy Grace, but she is a disgrace (For dessert, check out her sensation-seeking grilling of an unflappable Ms. Smart — who wisely put the Phyllis Diller of prosecutors in her place!).