Nancy Grace Claims Another Victim

I try not to hate people, I really do. It’s not good for the “soul,” whatever you mean by that, and it’s inherently irrational. But most of all, it doesn’t do any good. Your hate doesn’t reach out like some kind of apparition and stifle the good life of your enemies. So, really, what’s the point?

That being said, I really ha . . . I mean loathe Nancy Grace. To be fair, she started it. If I have a right to hate anybody, it’s people who compare me and my colleagues to concentration camp guards. Still, it’s better just to avoid her and her act, stay away from HLN, and get on with my life.

Alas, Grace tends to take others down with her. Over at TalkLeft, Jeralyn tells the sad story of Toni Medrano, a 29-year old mother who was charged with killing her infant son by accidentally smothering him. She had allegedly fallen asleep on him while drunk. Although Medrano was charged with manslaughter, that wasn’t enough for Grace, who dubbed her “Vodka Mom.” In a ludicrously over the top segment, she howled for murder one charges:

Now, one would assume that, given her past as a real live prosecutor, Grace knows that first degree murder requires something along the lines of malice and premeditation, neither of which would be easy to prove (if they could be proven at all) in the case of an accidental death where the defendant was passed out drunk. But that kind of analysis doesn’t make for good TV, so that’s not important. Much easier, and more psychological satisfying, to get all big eyed and rant and rail about a witch who needs burnt at the stake immediately.

Medrano was aware of Grace’s performance. Afterward, she killed herself by setting herself on fire. Now, obviously, Medrano had other issues in her life – from alcohol problems to the fact that she did kill her son, even if accidentally – but being pilloried on national TV surely didn’t help things.

And it’s not as if Grace doesn’t have a history with this sort of thing. In 2006, Grace was on the case of Melinda Duckett, whose son had been missing for two weeks. As I put it at the time:

Grace knew, with her innate sense of right and more right, that Duckett killed her son and proceeded to grill the bereaved mother.

But before the interview could air, Duckett shot and killed herself. If I remember correctly, Duckett was never even charged with anything in relation to her son’s disappearance, so Grace didn’t even have the smug satisfaction of thinking she hustled a killer off the planet as part of her TV show.

Oh, who the fuck am I kidding? Grace runs on smug satisfaction. I’m certain she’s pretty satisfied about this latest incident, since the guilty party was punished in Biblical fashion after Grace’s harangue. And part of me, try as I might, really hates her for it.