Objection!: How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal [Hardcover]

Nancy Grace (Author), Diane Clehane (Assistant)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 8, 2005

Court TV host Nancy Grace presents her case in this behind-the-scenes look at the high-profile cases everyone is talking about ancy Grace is a name millions of Americans recognize from her regular appearances on Court TV and Larry King Live. Legions of loyal fans tune in for her opinions on today's high-profile cases and her expert commentary on the challenges facing the American judicial system. Now, in Objection!, she makes her case for what's wrong with the legal system and what can be done about it.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Grace, an ex-prosecutor who for years has been a fixture on Court TV and now CNN, attacks criminals and their lawyers in this fiercely opinionated critique of the criminal justice system. Grace became a prosecutor after her fiancé was murdered and claims to have achieved a 100% conviction rate. A political shuffle cost her that job, but God, she believes, led her to the airwaves to continue her battle of good against evil. Defense attorneys, she contends, are con artists whose job is "to obscure the truth from the jury." Other targets of the author's wrath are celebrity defendants who, she says, receive special treatment at trials and in sentencing; greedy citizens who talk their way onto juries to gather material for instant books; and hucksters who sell memorabilia collected from depraved criminals. Grace inveighs against those who profit from high-profile trials, but fails to note that her own role as television's pro-prosecution talking head could be criticized on that ground. Grace energetically argues that television cameras should be allowed at all trials. No matter how self-serving this proposal may be when made by a prominent member of the "24/7 media," the idea is intriguing and enlivens what is otherwise a fairly predictable and angry rehash of O.J., Peterson, et al.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Grace, a former assistant district attorney in Atlanta specializing in criminal prosecution, is now a Court TV personality with a strong rightward lean. She presents a highly accessible commentary on what's wrong with our criminal justice system by focusing on cases involving the rich, famous, and infamous, including Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Scott Peterson, the Menendez brothers, Martha Stewart, and Robert Blake. Grace's name-dropping has purpose as she integrates these celebrity cases with her own litigation experience to highlight deficiencies in the justice system. Her attack on defense attorneys and their ethical deficiencies seems one-sided as she appears at times to disregard the presumption of innocence of the accused. She criticizes celebrity defendants and even juries who attempt to benefit financially from well-publicized trials. She includes a personal account of the murder of her^B fiance in an apparently random drive-by shooting. It was an experience that motivated her interest in the law and, no doubt, colors her perspective^B of the justice system. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1St Edition edition (June 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401301800
• ISBN-13: 978-1401301804
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (102 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,051,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nancy Grace joined Court TV from the Atlanta Fulton County District Attorney's Office, where she served for a decade as Special Prosecutor, compiling a perfect record of nearly 100 felony convictions at trial and no losses. She has also appeared on The View and The Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss today's most important trials. She lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars All Huff, Very Little Fact, August 19, 2005

By 

Benjamin Glass "BenGlassLaw" (Fairfax Station, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Objection!: How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal (Hardcover)

"Objection" is nothing but a rant after rant. There is little coherent in this book. There is no sequence to the chapters and it proves that to be "famous" one just need be controversial, not factual.
For example, Grace spends a great deal of time blistering the criminal justice system for the way it treats victims. She includes a chapter on the New York Central Park jogger case, complaing about the way original case was defended. Amazingly, she makes no mention at all of the fact that the original defendants were unjustly convicted and served many years in jail for a crime they didn't commit. One wonders if ignoring the facts was something she practiced when she was a prosecutor.
That this fact gets not even a footnote in her book makes all of the book suspect.
While the cover of the book proclaims that it takes a look at the inside story of the criminal justice system, she also takes a pot shot at the civil justice system, a part of the law about which she has no experience. She repeats worn out myths about the "McDonalds's hot coffee case", again displaying an astonishing lack of research.
Nancy Grace fans will probably like the book. I was on the fence about her from watching her on TV, but seeing how shallow this book is, I think it makes anything she says or writes about really suspect.

31 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Is this a joke?, April 2, 2006

By 

David Reindl - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Objection!: How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal (Hardcover)

Nancy Grace has co-authored a book decrying the negative influence of 24/7 media and celebrity defendants?!?! She made her millions by slinging mud at celebrity defendants, convicting them on T.V. before they've even been arrested. You need look no further than the cover of the book, which was actually authored by Diana Clehane, but whose name and photo do we see? - one that sells books - Nancy Grace's.

I have to agree with Ms. Clehane and Ms. Grace on one point: We should get rid of the cable shows focusing hour-after-hour on particularly celebrated criminal cases.
But they missed the target in the first part of their book's title... Our focus should not just be on "high-priced defense attorneys" but high-priced, million-book-selling, T.V. drama queens that proclaim their distorted ideas of "justice" as a prosecution system, absent defenses; one where no man is innocent - we're all guilty if she makes that her almighty determination.

Our legal system is not, and should not be, a prosecution mill Ms. Grace.

68 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars After The Fact, help?, June 7, 2005

By 

Sophia (NY NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Objection!: How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal (Hardcover)

To be objective is the goal of my review, and I am asking my readers to also see this approach by Grace objectively in your mind. There is an obvious crucial problem in the USA with the type of crimes Grace exploits. And if you have read this book and watched Grace over any length of time you will see with open eyes the fact of exploiting the offender and the victim. I want to ask you up front, how does this help? To give example when the murder kidnapping took place recently in Idaho, Grace was asking the officer on scene, about the gruesome details of the murdered victims. In the Jackson trial she jokes of the circumstances surrounding Jackson such as the spider bite, his pajama's, his back problem and makes them comical excuses. If Jackson is Guilty, bring on the Justice he deserves, but in the meantime does this give Grace the right to act like a 12 year old? How does this help us? I am sincerely asking, be objective, and lets take this a step further, why does Nancy Grace bring in the "Glove", the Jackson glove and flash it on CNN? Is this the type of intellect we should be respecting and regarding? Or is this about ratings, have we fallen into the Springer/Geraldo world?? What is the purpose of this and joke around in front of Larry King about this, Larry wasn't laughing, but Nancy laughs at her own jokes. Nancy certainly is having a good time, is this an objective approach to reducing sex offenses in the USA? No, it most certainly is not, if anything she is opening a possible door for allowing the weak to become what we don't want them to be. And the weak are the ones who molest children, not being rational minded,,, which do not pay attention to Graces tactics more or less fully comprehend the law. So we are to say, I am sorry afterwards and not use our god given sense and combat these crimes objectively before they take place? We take it so seriously afterwards, and then joke around about it during trial.
Grace also stresses evidence, which separates humans as accepting each other. Once again I say, If Jackson is guilty, serve him Justice. Nancy's evidence log does not revolve around the fact that whether he did or did not commit a crime. Grace emphasis is on such things as the form and markings of Jackson's Penis being identified by one of the accusers. Many such pieces of evidence like this, actually an over emphasis on evidence like this. We are human, not creatures to be ashamed of one another. When I was a child I saw my female gym teachers in the shower, and many such cases similar. We accepted each other; Nancy is certainly viewing this in a very shallow and limited mind. We Americans are becoming such individuals we are fearing each other of crossing the line of respect and ashamed of our bodies? So much invented fear of being molested because someone saw a human without his clothes on!! Are we not able to see what we are without the self inflicted horror that because Jackson has a penis we accuse him of child molestation before the Jury lets out??? You have to ask why does the USA have more people in prison than any other nation for this exact same accusation. If you have never been to a foreign country, it may be hard for you to relate, men walk with boys nude throughout the world, and women with girls the same, in many cases its mixed, if you doubt me, go to a Japanese bath house, or to a German indoor swimming pool, there are hundreds of other examples much less private everywhere outside the USA. I only bring up this corner of surely usable evidence used by Nancy to further my case of realism as opposed to the real intent of Grace, or if she really knows what she is doing.
Now, what is the point of this book and Nancy Grace's view then? It is an after the fact exploitation of the crime to assist the victim by locking up the offender, WHICH REALLY DOES NOT HAPPEN EITHER WAY!! Convicted sex offenders are out and by the hundreds of thousands. The victims have been made popular and have extreme shock for being exploited publicly. Grace's approach does not bring pride to the victim, but fame, deep from the heart UN wanted fame.
So what is the point of my book review? The secret is prevention, not after the fact exploitation and desire to increase ones ratings on CNN. The number one prevention measure should be complete subject matter education in elementary schools for all children. Being smart is the best prevention, especially if we made the potential weak offender smart on the subject before he was able to be a molester. If you don't want to be raped, if you don't want your children molested, watch them and watch yourself by not being alone (This 18 year old in Aruba was abducted when she was alone). Protect yourself in a number of ways. I am in no way shifting the blame, I'm accepting the fact that the killer, the rapist, the child molester does in fact exist so I help you better by saying the way to rid the problem is to prevent it. When the offender is caught, get rid of him or her. Don't let them out for anything. Look what has happened in Florida, a repeat offender, this is happening everywhere in the USA. What someone needs to do, is write a book on PREVENTION, not on After The Fact IM so sorry approach. A in public school program needs to be installed to teach children at a very early age encompassing this entire subject.
So I ask you to objectively look at Grace, a government prosecutor who was rejected from being a Judge, she is not helping; she is advertising the problem in its hideous Mad Light.