Hater Hall of Shame: Nancy Grace Edition

Nancy Ann Grace, Born October 23, 1959

Nancy Grace was born in Macon, Georgia to a ”working-class” family - as opposed to an unemployed-class family – and that’s the only information I could find about her early life.  After graduating from high school, Grace first attended Valdosta State University and planned on becoming an English teacher.  However, after her fiancé was murdered in 1979, Grace enrolled into law school to become a felony prosecutor and a supporter of victims’ rights – are there law-types who feel victims should have no rights?   She received her Juris Doctor degree from the Walter F. George Law School at Mercer University, and later earned a Masters in constitutional and criminal law from New York University.  After receiving her degrees, Nancy briefly worked as clerk for a federal court judge, and later with the Federal Trade Commission in cases that dealt with consumer protection and antitrust laws.

Grace made a name for herself while working as a Special Prosecutor in the Atlanta-Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney’s office.  While there, she mostly prosecuted felony cases involving serial murder, serial rape, serial child molestation, and arson.  Nancy’s claim to fame is earning a conviction in every case she prosecuted, but two specific cases were overturned as a direct result of prosecutorial misconduct.  In 1994, a heroin trafficking case was declared a mistrial after Grace “exceeded the wide latitude of closing argument” - which basically means she was talkin’ a bunch of ying yang by referring to previous, unrelated cases in an attempt to tug on juror’s verdict strings.  Nothing major, and not surprising to anyone who has ever seen her TV show.  In 1997, evidence led to another previous conviction being overturned, and Grace was cited for misconduct which included: 1) Having knowledge of subpoenas with incorrect dates, 2) Presenting a chart in closing arguments with false statements from the defense expert, 3) Vouching for the case by telling jurors she believed the defendant was guilty, and my personal favorite 4) Performing two illegal searches of the defendant’s house, and bringing a CNN camera crew along to document one of them.

In 1997, she also joined forces with the greatest rhymin’ attorney in the legal game, Johnnie Cochran, for a legal commentary show on Court TV called “Trial Heat.”  Cochran ended up leaving the show not long after, likely because he did not know it meant working with this megabitch when he signed on the dotted line – see, just thinking about Johnnie Two Gloves makes me start bustin’ iambic pentameter.  The show was handed over to Grace and her annoying blend of bitchiness and melodramatic anger.  In 2005, she also began hosting a primetime legal analysis show on CNN, and sane TV viewers learned that Nancy Grace twice is not so nice – or bearable.  Perhaps her most famous on-air moment to date involved an interview she had with a woman whose son went missing two weeks prior.  Grace used her typical badgering, abrasive style to question the woman on details of the ongoing case, and accused her of being a suspect without coming out and directly stating it.  The woman was found dead the next day, and the cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  The tragic event took place before the airing of the show, but Nancy and the network decided to run the interview anyway.  Many people believed that the media’s scrutiny was ultimately the reason behind the woman’s suicide, but Grace was unapologetic.  During an appearance On Good Morning America, Grace stated, “If anything, I would suggest (great word choice) that made her commit suicide.”  The family has since filed a wrongful death claim against both CNN and Grace, but litigation is currently pending.  Grace also brought attention to herself by offering some scathing opinions concerning the 2006 rape case involving Duke’s lacrosse team.  After the Attorney General pronounced all three players innocent, Grace was absent from the following show and a substitute reporter announced that all charges had been dismissed.  To be clear, I have no problem with her being a woman who has strong opinions; I do, however, have a problem with every other attribute she possesses outside of those two realms.

The production crew has some fun at Grace’s expense, and piss her off something fierce.  That’s what I call a win-win:

A Madtv skit that parodies Grace, and annoying radio show personalities:

SNL’s Amy Poehler takes a shot at Grace, and absolutely kills it:

Highly recommended viewing – A compilation of Nancy’s not so graceful TV moments