God bless Keith Olbermann. He is famously reducing Bill O'Reilly and the Fox Flying Monkeys to the laughing stocks they deserve to be. Now he is branching out. Tonight's Worst Person in the World is
Nancy Grace, possibly the world's only human being capable of making Rita Cosby look good.
It seems Nancy has been caught committing the right-winger's common sin of padding the resume. Miss Nancy justifies her authoritarian habit of decrying every defendant as guilty by telling the tragic story of her teenage fiance. Well, things weren't quite as she has let on. She may have to hire Scooter Libby's memory loss expert to wriggle out of this one.
More on the flip.
Thanks to the
New York Observer, here is the familiar Nancy Grace Story:
As she tells it, in the summer of 1980, she was a 19-year-old college student in small-town Georgia, engaged to Keith Griffin, a star third baseman for the Valdosta State University Blazers. The wedding was a few months away.
Then, one August morning, a stranger--a 24-year-old thug with a history of being on the wrong side of the law--accosted Griffin outside a convenience store. He shot him five times in the head and back, stole $35 from his wallet, and left him dead.
Police soon tracked down the killer, and a new phase of suffering began for Ms. Grace. The suspect brazenly denied any involvement. At trial, Ms. Grace testified, then waited as jury deliberations dragged on for three days. The district attorney asked her if she wanted the death penalty, and in a moment of youthful weakness, she said no. The verdict came back guilty--life in prison--and a string of appeals ensued.
For Nancy Grace, the ordeal she describes felt nothing like justice. And so the Shakespeare-loving teen set out to change the justice system: first as a bulldog prosecutor, then as a Court TV and CNN anchor, crusader for victims' rights and professional vilifier of the criminal-defense industry.
She has risen from this personal tragedy to be the star harpy of CNN's formerly somewhat-useful Headline News. Bigger things have seemed to be on the near horizon for Nancy. But now, not so much. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigations:
...[T]hose same sources contradict Ms. Grace when it comes to other salient facts of the crime and the trial--the facts that form the basis of Ms. Grace's crusade against an impotent, criminal-coddling legal system.
- Griffin was shot not by a random robber, but by a former co-worker.
- The killer, Tommy McCoy, was 19, not 24, and had no prior convictions.
- Mr. McCoy confessed to the crime the evening he was arrested.
- The jury convicted in a matter of hours, not days.
- Prosecutors asked for the death penalty, but didn't get it, because Mr. McCoy was mildly retarded.
- Mr. McCoy never had an appeal; he filed a habeas application five years ago, and after a hearing it was rejected.
Ms. Grace has also misreported the date of the incident--it was in 1979, not 1980--and has given Griffin's age as 25 when it was 23.
The justice system, in other words, apparently worked the way it was supposed to.
Ms. Grace, whom the author of the article calls "the Bill O'Reilly of legal analysis," offers the lame excuse that she "didn't research the defendant." But is this a simple mistake from the famous former prosecutor? No, as any of us familiar with her history are aware. As an assistant DA in Atlanta in 1987-1996, she was cited for improper practices three times, resulting in the overturning of convictions for a triple murder, an arson-murder, and a heroin trafficking case.
CNN offers the Cheney defense: poor Nancy suffered a tremendous tragedy at the tender age of 19, and we should all applaud the strong victim's-rights fighter she's become. Bleagghhhh.
By all means, read the wonderful article in the Observer. It's a classic, just-the-facts takedown of one of the blonde harpies who are making cable TV ever less watchable.
UPDATE: In the interest of fairness, ortcutt got here first. That diary is great, and covers other points of the story. Check it out.