Ah, Nancy, You Fibber, You

Last week I ripped on CNN/CourtTV legal harpy Nancy Grace for (indirectly) calling me a Nazi. So, I think it's only fair that this article in the New York Observer pretty much calls her a liar. It seems that the story Grace tells about the murder of her fiance and the ensuing trial (what the article nicely refers to as her "origin story") contains a fair amount of puffery. Oh yes, she gets the big picture right, but whiffs on these details:

• Griffin was shot not by a random robber, but by a former co-worker.

• The killer, Tommy McCoy, was 19, not 24, and had no prior convictions.

• Mr. McCoy confessed to the crime the evening he was arrested.

• The jury convicted in a matter of hours, not days.

• Prosecutors asked for the death penalty, but didn’t get it, because Mr. McCoy was mildly retarded.

• Mr. McCoy never had an appeal; he filed a habeas application five years ago, and after a hearing it was rejected.

Why are the details important? Because, they "form the basis of Ms. Grace’s crusade against an impotent, criminal-coddling legal system." In other words, the facts that underlie her contempt for the criminal justice system are false. Her contempt, therefore, is misguided. Given her penchant for overstatement when discussing the cases of the day, I'm hardly surprised that she's not up to snuff on the details of a 25-year old crime.