NancyTV - CNN and CourtTV personality Nancy Grace speaks Tuesday afternoon, at a press conference in the Ohio Building, about how she selects cases for her law-themed 8 p.m. CNN Headline News show. Grace said there is a team of 20 to 25 people who review different cases throughout the country based on media accessibility in the courtroom.Grace: ordinary people can be heroes
By Clay Cunningham
Issue date: 2/21/07 Section: Campus
Well-known TV analyst and former Georgia prosecutor Nancy Grace made her presence known when she visited ISU Tuesday for two separate events.
In an afternoon press conference, Grace spoke about high-profile celebrity cases and the interest they garner, such as Michael Jackson, O.J. Simpson and Anna Nicole Smith."Anna Nicole Smith is symbolic of the legal system," she said. Grace called Simpson's proposed book "If I Did It" an attempt at blood money.
"Justice is blind when it comes to missing persons," she said after being asked about the missing Terre Haute native and ISU student Scott Javins who went missing in 2002. Grace later agreed to look into Javins's case.Grace said the hard-hitting questioning techniques that have made her famous come directly from cross-examinations in the courtroom.
"I feel very strongly that victims don't have a voice in the legal system," she said. "When I see the system fail, I feel like someone kicked me in my stomach."
Grace said that when she's not on television she exercises and reads frequently. Grace went into law after earning a degree in English. She doesn't regret giving up English for law, but still misses it. She recently returned from the Globe Theater in London.
"I miss it very much," she said of her English studies. "But I don't feel I had a choice."Grace defined the American justice system as "a test of truth born out of controversy."Grace said that while in law school, she would sit in church and study her law books. It's something she regrets, but she says she's making up for it by attending church anywhere she is.
Grace doesn't consider practicing law work, but rather something she's deeply passionate about. "It's not like a job where you clock out," she said. "It's something I believe in. You don't just shut it off."
In the evening, Grace conducted a conference in the Tilson Auditorium as part of ISU's speaker series. She entered the stage greeted by a partially standing ovation. She mostly avoided discussing her television persona, electing to talk to the audience about how everyday people can become heroes. Grace said that the opportunity for seemingly normal people to perform heroic acts happen all the time, it's just that many people don't seek these opportunities out.
"It's so easy for ordinary people to do extraordinary things," Grace said. 'The question is not will the call come, but when it comes, will you answer it?"
One story she shared came from her personal life. When Grace was young, she was laying on asphalt when she was confronted by a rattlesnake. Before it could attack her, her mother came from behind with a garden hoe, and stuck it into the snake killing it, and in doing so saving young Nancy's life.
"I felt like I had gotten off the world," Grace said. "It just didn't seem like the world could just keep spinning but it did. The only thing that changed was me."
This incident is what drove Grace to the law, where she would eventually become the first female federal prosecutor in inner city Atlanta. She told colorful stories about her bizarre trials she participated in when she began. She then went into detail about her first murder trial. A mentally and financially challenged woman named Mary had been suffocated with a plastic bag. Her family was unable to attend the trial, because they couldn't afford the cost of a bus ticket to get to the courtroom. Grace said that this was the moment she felt like she was doing something special.
"This is when I got to do something extraordinary," Grace said. "I got the chance to give a voice to the voiceless."
Since this moment, Grace has dedicated her time to defending the rights of crime victims. Though she has had a select few of her convictions overturned, she has never lost a felony case. She closed her speech by re-emphasizing her earlier points about how those can break the restraints of ordinary life and make a true impact on the world.
"I know you think your ordinary, but you're not," Grace said. "Let me ask you to do the good you can, when you can, for as long as you can. This is your race, so run."
The evening concluded with a question and answer session. Grace has come under fire for incidents such as when the mother of a kidnapped baby committed suicide one day after an intense interview with Grace. She has also been criticized for speculating of the guilt of high profile criminal suspects such as Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson, without having concrete evidence to support her claims. While she encouraged people to ask her about these incidents, no one did, indicating that most of her critics stayed home.
Speaking up - Grace, the third speaker in this year's University Speakers Series, spoke Tuesday night in Tilson Auditorium about becoming an everyday hero, as her mother was. She challenged listeners by saying, "Will you hear the call (to be a hero) and will you answer it?" Photos by Sam Allen
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