Nancy Grace, Meet Shawn Matlock

I haven’t posted for a while, and I feel a wee bit guilty about that. Its been a busy fall, and the next 2 weeks are the culmination of all of that. Hopefully, after my scheduled trial next week I can get back on a regular blogging schedule. That said, I could not help but pass along to you all my friend Shawn Matlock’s take on Nancy Grace, Scourge of the Airwaves. Unlike Shawn, I do watch television, and even some court shows. Nancy Grace never fails to appall me, as when she pronounced the Duke Three Guilty within days of their indictments. So we know she got that one right. In any event, I can’t improve on what Shawn’s said, so here is his post in full:

I rarely watch television in the first place. Of course that doesn’t apply to Cowboys’, Celtics’, or Tigers’ games. If I watch anything, it is normal T.V. With the proliferation of 80 bagillion channels available, I can neither keep up with what I pay $100 a month for, nor really want to. I mean most of this stuff is not that far removed from Wayne’s World. I certainly never watch the ever-increasing allotment of court television. You know, whether it’s CourtTV or one of the shows on CNN or Fox News, I just don’t understand why anyone would watch that stuff. It is never accurate. It never really tries to be. I mean if Fox News Channel’s own Wendy Murphy can make the statement that the deck is stacked IN FAVOR OF CRIMINAL DEFENDANTS, how reliable can this stuff be? (Of course, she admits she hasn’t read the whole Constitution which I would think would kind be important) (And remember, I’m Republican. I have to support Fox News. Fair and balanced, remember? It’s in the contract.)

The other day however, someone asked me what I thought about Nancy Grace. Admittedly, while I know who Nancy Grace is (sort of), I can’t say I have ever actually watched her. Of course, I have watched the parody of her by Amy Poehler on Saturday Night Live. How can you not like that? I mean seriously.

So after I was asked, I decided I should actually figure out something about this woman, since so many people seem to have such strong feelings about her. I mean, you don’t get repeatedly parodied by SNL for nothing, right?

A quick look through Wikipedia shows us that she is really just a grandstanding former prosecutor with a distorted view of the world. It seems that before she jumped to broadcasting, she was a prosecutor with the Atlanta-Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. It appears that she never lost a case. Clearly she never tried a case against my grandfather, Ben. But nevertheless, quite an accomplishment. Hard to do with the whole power of the state behind you. (Tongue firmly in cheek).

But it also appears Ms. Grace never met an ethical or legal line she didn’t like to cross. The following is a small snippet from the Wikipedia website on Ms. Grace:

“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.

“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.”
Her opening statement in the case promised the jury evidence of physical abuse that she had to know would never be admissible because 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 during 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.”

Pretty impressive, huh? I thought so. Oh, and by the way, that passage up there I am attributing to someone else. It’s called citing to the source. Something Ms. Grace apparently doesn’t like to do, as is evidenced by parts of her “book.” Here’s another “citation to a source:”

“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.”

So this is what people watch on television? Amazing. I guess we’re not that far removed from Wayne’s World after all.

Source: The Matlock Blog