Nancy Grace Wikipedia Entry Excerpts
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Nancy Grace: Wikipedia excerpts from the free online encyclopedia.
Nancy Grace (born October 23, 1958 in Macon, Georgia) is a controversial victims' rights advocate and former prosecutor who is the host of a self-titled CNN Headline News show that airs at 8:00 PM EDT every night.
She also anchors Court TV's "Closing Arguments" which airs at 3:00 PM EDT weekdays and has co-authored the book Objection! -- How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System.
As a student, Grace was a devotee of Shakespearean literature, and intended to become an English professor after graduating from college. However, the course of her life was changed by the violent murder of her fiancé. The incident motivated her to enroll in law school and set her on the path to becoming a felony prosecutor, and an outspoken advocate of victims' rights.
Grace served for nearly a decade in the Atlanta-Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney's office as Special Prosecutor of major felony cases involving serial murder, serial rape, serial child molestation and arson. She won nearly a hundred felony convictions at trial with no losses, although some convictions were later overturned by higher courts.
A Law Review graduate of the Walter F. George School of Law of Mercer University, Grace received her LLM in constitutional and criminal law from New York University. She has written articles for the American Bar Association Journal, various law reviews, and op-eds. Previously, Grace clerked with 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. She currently serves on Mercer University's board of trustees and recently adopted a section of the street surrounding the law school.
Media caricatures/portrayals
In September 2005, Grace was parodied in the T.V. soap Passions as a vicious prosecutor named "Grace Nancier", seeking to find Tracey Ross' character guilty, despite her innocence. It has been reported that Grace was consulted by the soap to provide some tips for her character, and she has admitted to being somewhat of a fan of Passions and tries to catch it when possible.
In November 2005, a similar character was also featured in an episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, loosely based on the story of missing student Natalee Holloway, which Grace has covered in some detail.
In October and December 2005 episodes of Boston Legal, actress Jill Brennan played an anchor on CNN named "Gracie Jane" who fills in for Larry King. Based on her Southern accent, confrontational style and anchorship on CNN, one could certainly assume she is based on Nancy Grace.
In the 2005-6 season of the Canadian Satire program This Hour has 22 Minutes, Cathy Jones played character "Betty Hope", was a spoof of Grace.
Quotes
On Scott Peterson: “Guilty as charged.”
On Robert Blake: “Guilty as sin.”
On Michael Schiavo: “A philandering scuzz.”
On Dennis Rader, the BTK killer: “A lowlife coward.”
On Sarah Johnson, an Idaho woman convicted of killing her parents: “The devil’s seed.”
On the second Michael Jackson trial, speaking on "Larry King Live," CNN, Feb. 21, 2003: "But I'm telling you, this boy, two-thirds of this can be corroborated by other people. So why would he lie about the molestation part? It is in graphic detail. It just seems true... I think Michael Jackson walks. And I think it's a disgrace. He's guilty." "It was a 13-year-old Hispanic boy who took on Michael Jackson in court. And tonight, it's not guilty, by reason of celebrity."
To the jury foreman in the second trial: "Mr. Rodriguez? Can I ask you a question? What do you think a grown man up in his 40s is doing sleeping with one little boy after the next, all by himself, locked up in his bedroom, every night? That doesn't bother you? It bothers me."
"I'm on a search for the truth," she says during a recent visit to the District to promote her new book, "Objection!," in which the former prosecutor calls defense attorneys "dangerous" and compares them to pigs. The way Grace sees it, prosecutors want to do what's right, whereas defense attorneys are unethical and just want to win. She'd never cross over to what she calls the "dark side" because "I don't really want to have any part of getting guilty people off."
On [defense lawyers]: "They lie, they cheat, they'll say anything. They walk a thin line that I don't even want to get near. Like in the David Westerfield case. They knew the whole time he did it, because he knew where her body was, and they used that as a bargaining chip to improve his situation. But when that didn't work [the police found the body on their own], they proceeded to drag the Van Dams through the mud. It's disgusting. Some people argue that the prosecution just wants to get a conviction. What joy would I get out of sending the wrong person to jail?"
On on-air debates: "When I get into an argument on the air, the man can always yell louder, if a man fights like hell, he's being forceful; if I raise my voice and fight like hell, I'm being a shrew and a bitch."
At the end of each show, Grace usually says goodbye to her viewers with some form of the following message: "I want to thank all of my guests for being with us tonight. But my biggest thank you is to you, for being with us, and inviting us into your homes. Coming up, headlines from all around the world. I'm Nancy Grace, signing off for tonight. Hope to see you right here tomorrow night, eight o'clock sharp Eastern, and until then, goodnight, friend."
Original source: Wikipedia.com
The neutrality of the current Wikipedia article/entry on Nancy Grace has a status of disputed.
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children