About
Nancy Grace is an American television personality and former special prosecutor who currently hosts the CNN Headline News’ current affairs program Nancy Grace in which she covers a mix of news topics and gossip. On the Internet, she has come under sharp criticism for prematurely declaring suspects in high-profile criminal cases guilty without concrete evidence or due diligence.
TV Career
Grace’s self-titled talk show, Nancy Grace premiered on CNN’s HLN (Headline News Network) on February 21st, 2005. As of January 2014, the show has recorded over 500 episodes. She has made multiple appearances as a guest co-host on the morning talk show The View since her show premiered, and has also been on Good Morning America. She has appeared as herself on several scripted shows since the mid-2000s including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2007, The Wire in 2008 and Raising Hope in 2012. Grace competed on the 13th season of the reality competition show Dancing with the Stars in fall of 2011. While performing a dance number on the show she had a wardrobe malfunction that resulted in a nip slip that was widely reported on, though TV viewers didn’t see the malfunction.[2] She was eliminated during the eighth week of the competition.[3] She made her acting debut in the 2012 television movie The Eleventh Victim.
Online History
The Twitter account[5] for Grace’s show has over 390,000 followers as of January 2014, while the show’s Facebook page[6] has over 1.6 million likes.
Elizabeth Smart Kidnapping Case
During the 2002 Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case, when suspect Richard Ricci was arrested by police on the basis that he had a criminal record and had worked on the Smarts’ home, Grace immediately and repeatedly proclaimed on Court TV and CNN’s Larry King Live that Ricci was guilty, although there was little evidence to support this claim.
In 2008 Smart was interviewed by Grace on CNN regarding a sex offender bill she supported. When Grace continually asked questions regarding the kidnapping Smart appeared exasperated and eventually refused to answer questions that were not about the bill.
Duke University Lacrosse Case
During the coverage of the 2006 allegations that three Duke University Lacrosse players had raped a woman, Grace continually suggested the students were guilty on air, making sarcastic statements such as:
“I’m so glad they didn’t miss a lacrosse game over a little thing like gang rape!”
Why would you go to a cop in an alleged gang rape case, say, and lie and give misleading information?"
On the April 27th, 2007, Jon Stewart suggested in an episode of The Daily Show that Grace had someone fill in on her show the night after the rape allegations were proved false because of her previous statements.[12]