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Nancy Grace Biography

Swapnil Srivastava
Anchor of the very popular and controversial 'Nancy Grace Show', Nancy Grace has gained fame not only as an advocate, but a victim too. Read on for more on her career and life.
Throughout her career, Nancy Grace has been under constant criticism for her working style as an advocate, as well for her television show. But she has been a woman of substance, still fighting the battle against the defects in the judiciary system of America.
Justifying her own aggressive methods, she once said, "I don't expect everybody to like me. If you try to please everybody by changing your position and your personality, every time you do that you lose a little bit of yourself."

Childhood and Early Years

Born in Macon, Georgia, her childhood was spent in a typical working-class environment. She aspired to be an English teacher but enrolled in law college after the murder of her fiancé in the year 1979.

■ She graduated from Mercer Law School, in the field of law review and received her degree in constitutional and criminal law from New York University.
She worked as a special prosecutor for the Atlanta-Fulton County District Attorney's office. There she used to take difficult cases like child molestation, serial rape and arson, and completed most of them successfully.
According to her colleagues, Nancy Grace was a passionate and dedicated advocate and used to form close relationships with her clients. She referred to her clients as 'my victims' which was something beyond the professional demeanor of a lawyer who generally used the term 'my clients'.

Nancy Grace Tragedy

Nancy Grace has always been open about the tragedy that she faced in the early years of her life. Sometimes, she has also been accused for the embellishment of facts of her fiancé Keith Griffin's death.

He was a student of geology at the University of Georgia in Athens, and worked part-time for Ingram Construction Company at Georgia Kraft Plywood Co.
On 6th August, 1979, he was shot five times by one of his coworkers. His tragic death was the prime reason behind Nancy Grace taking up further studies in law and her success as an advocate.

The Nancy Grace Show

The popular show deals with the high-profile legal issues of the day. Being an experienced advocate herself, Nancy Grace takes up the criminal cases and challenges guests who are related to it.
It is particularly meant for the people who are interested in breaking crime news, and the concept is justified in most of the episodes. She gives a clear-cut picture of the top crime stories and doesn't hesitate in bringing up the lesser discussed or low profile cases.
The show is broadcast Monday through Thursday nights on HLN, and covers courtroom developments. It has also covered the famous Michael Jackson trial.

Earlier she has hosted Court TV's Closing Arguments from 1996 to 2007, and won two Gracie Awards for it.

Controversies

Fame and controversies have always been part of a celebrity's life, to which Nancy Grace is no exception. Two of her cases were overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court. First one was in 1994, when the court pointed out her closing arguments as "an unrelated triple homicide and a serial rape case".
Second was in 1997 and Nancy Grace was accused for using "an extensive pattern of inappropriate and, in some cases, illegal conduct". On 21st November 2006, a lawsuit was filed against her, by the parents of Melinda Duckett, who was one of her interviewees.
Melinda committed suicide two weeks after she did an interview with Nancy Grace on the show. Nancy was said to have codded the deceased, regarding her missing two-year-old son, Trenton.

Other Facts

In April 2007, she got married to David Linch, who is an investment banker in Atlanta. Despite all the controversies, Nancy Grace is still considered as one of the popular public figures in America. She was blessed twins Lucy Elizabeth and John David in November 2007.
Besides her work as an advocate and anchor, she has also co-written the book, Objection! How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System. Her first fiction novel The Eleventh Victim was published in the year 2009.
She was a contestant on the popular dance show Dancing With The Stars, and lasted for 8 weeks. She has also appeared on shows like Raising Hope, Law & Order, Hancock, and The Wire.
Her opinions have gathered her fans as well as critics, and she is one of the most followed legal analysts on television. Well, as she has rightly said, "If I listened to my critics, I would still be at home under my bed right now."