Graces’ history of embellishment stretches back over three decades to her then Fiancee’s Kenneth Griffins 1979 so-called random murder as chronicled by her in her book Objection. Grace, who has described the tragedy as the impetus for her career as a prosecutor and victims’ rights advocate often publicly referrers to the incident, but her statements themselves are laced with contradictions. An Investigative report by the New York Observer in March 2006 found that despite Graces’ statements to the contrary:
Grace worked for nearly a decade in the Atlanta Fulton County Georgia’s District Attorney’s office as Special Prosecutor where her work focused on felony cases involving serial murder, serial rape, serial child molestation, and arson. Grace left the prosecutors’ office after the District Attorney she had been working under decided not to run for reelection, but left a string a rebutes from courts and judges in her wake.
The Georgie Supreme Court twice commented on Grace’s conduct as a Fulton County prosecutor. First in Bell v. State, a 1994 heroin drug trafficking case, the Justices declared a mistrial, saying that Grace had “exceeded the wide latitude of closing argument” by drawing comparisons to unrelated murder and rape cases.
In 1997, the Georgia Supreme Court was more severe, overturning the murder-arson conviction of businessman W. W. Carr in the death of his wife. 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 [GRACE] had demonstrated her disregard of the notions of due process and fairness, and was inexcusable.” Carr was freed in 2004 when The Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Fulton County had waited too long to retry him.
In 2005, a panel of the Federal 11th circuit Court of Appeals criticized Grace’s conduct even while upholding convictions in her cases declaring that Grace had “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 evidence that pointed to other suspects over to Stephens’s defense team . The court further noted that it was “difficult to conclude that Grace did not knowingly” elicit false testimony from a policeman investigator that there were no other suspects despite strong evidence to the contrary.
Duke Lacrosse scandal
Grace took an ON AIR pro-prosecution position throughout the 2006 Duke University Lacrosse case, in which Crystal Magnum, an African-American stripper and North Carolina Central University student, falsely accused three members of Duke University’s men’s lacrosse team of gang raping her at a party. Prior to Duke suspending its men’s lacrosse team’s season, Grace was heard sarcastically noting on the air that, “I’m so glad they didn’t miss a lacrosse game over a little thing like gang rape!” and “Why would you go to a cop in an alleged gang rape case, say, and lie and give misleading information?” After the disbarment of District Attorney Mike Nifong, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper pronounced all three Duke players innocent of the rape charges made by Mangum. On the following broadcast of her show, Grace did not appear and a substitute reporter announced the removal of all charges.
Elizabeth Smart kidnapping
During the Elizabeth Smart, Salt Lake City 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 that Ricci “was guilty,” with little evidence to support her claim. She also suggested publicly that Ricci’s girlfriend was involved in the cover-up of his alleged crime. Grace continued to accuse Ricci, though he died while in custody.
It was later revealed that Smart was kidnapped by Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, individuals with whom Richard Ricci had no connection.
When Court TV confronted Grace seven months later to ask whether she was incorrect in her assertion that Ricci was guilty, and whether or not she felt bad about it in any way, she stated that Ricci was “a known ex-con, a known felon, and brought suspicion on himself, so who could blame anyone for claiming he was the perpetrator?”
Guilty or Not, Graces’ Kangaroo Court continues to pass judgement.
