Bizarre, Criminal law, Media, Politics, Society, Torts

Fall From Grace: Expert Finds Nancy Grace Contributed to Suicide of Mother

A Harvard professor has concluded that CNN Headline New’s rabid host, Nancy Grace, contributed to the death of a mother, Melinda Duckett, who committed suicide three years ago after being savaged by Grace.

Grace has made a career out of snarling and sensational segments on criminal stories. She was hired by CNN despite a very controversial career as a prosecutor during which courts repeatedly cited her for abusive or unethical conduct. For a prior column on prosecutorial abuse by Grace, click here. Any criticism of Fox by CNN is remarkably hypocritical in light of its long association with Grace.

In this case, Grace all but pronounced Melinda Duckett as involved in the disappearance of her 2-year-old son in 2006. In a signature segment, Grace virtually mocked Duckett’s claims of innocence. Duckett shot herself in the head the next day.

The family has sued Grace, here, and a Harvard clinical professor of psychiatry has written that the CNN interview inflicted public humiliation and was “a substantial contributing cause” of Duckett’s death.

Dr. Harold J. Bursztajn, a clinical professor of psychiatry, made his findings public in a filing in the case.

For a prior column on these type of talk show torts, click here.

For the full story, click here.

40 thoughts on “Fall From Grace: Expert Finds Nancy Grace Contributed to Suicide of Mother”

  1. Hopefully you can post some blogs on the upcoming trial or settlement on the Nancy Grace issues regarding the Duckett case scheduled in the next few months Jonathon. Hopefully is does go to trial because the reputation of CNN is to settle most cases to avoid the media bashing.

  2. Well if it isn’t michellefrommadison also well known as Jasen Biczak one of the biggest trolls on wordpress. Alan do we have to call your local LE and have them talk to your father and grandfather again? We don’t live far from you and could stop by for a little visit, OK?

    BTW how is the rollerblading going over on Norton Ave, u skate around the block?

  4. Good for Elizabeth Edwards. She must have decided leaving the narcissist was the right thing to do to care of herself.

  5. Off Topic

    Share this on:
    Mixx Facebook Twitter Digg delicious reddit MySpace StumbleUpon LinkedIn Viadeo
    John Edwards, wife separate, source says
    January 27, 2010 — Updated 2012 GMT (0412 HKT)

    (CNN) — Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who admitted last week that he fathered a child with a videographer, separated Wednesday from his wife, Elizabeth, according to a source close to her.

    Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/27/edwards.split/

  6. Looks like the Transcript is going to be recorded via Video.

    Judge: Nancy Grace’s deposition can be videotaped
    AP

    Nancy Grace To Be Deposed In Duckett WESH Orlando – Nancy Grace To Be Deposed In Duckett Case Wed Jan 27, 7:44 am ET

    ORLANDO, Fla. – A judge has ruled that talk show host Nancy Grace can be videotaped while answering questions in a Florida wrongful death lawsuit.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100127/ap_en_tv/us_missing_florida_boy

    Embedding disabled by request

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhczWp9UzOI

    Seems only fair enough to me.

  7. Yeah and does everyone remember when Nancy Grace shot JFK from the grassy knoll? Zapruder got it all on film, and yet she still didn’t get disbarred. What an outrage.

  8. Don’t forget stompthatdirtybitch, her twins were only conceived as a defensive strategy to her current group of lawsuits filed, and threatened against her criminal butt. She still, to this day, is not allowed to be alone with either of the twins as sanctioned against her after she injured the tot-son to the point of needing hospital intervention, remember that?

  9. That’s one of the many reasons why, there stompthatdirtybitch, that Nancy can no longer practice as an attorney anymore anywhere within any of the 50 states of the United States. While she was not technically disbarred, she was contractually disbarred under the provisions of her Separation Agreement when the city of Fulton canned her butt and she can not ever legally practice Law ever again. She cost the taxpayers of that city tens of millions of dollars in lawsuits won against that town by victims that Nancy Grace victimized.
    🙂

  10. THANK GOD. THANK GOD. THANK GOD. THANK GOD.

    I HAVE WRITTEN A NUMBER OF TIMES THAT NANCY GRACE SHOULD BE BURNED ALIVE FOR USING HER TV SHOW TO DECIDE WHO IS GUILTY BEFORE ANY TRIAL. ONE WOULD THINK THAT A LAWYER WOULD HAVE LEARNED THE FIRST LEASON OF LAW, ANY DEFENDANT IS INOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY.
    THAT BITCH MADE A JOKE OF AMERICA’S LEGAL SYSTEM.
    I AM SO GLAD…THE BITCH IS DEAD.

    PERFECT EXAMPLE OF TRAILER TRASH. EVEN IF TRASH LIKE HER WENT TO HARVARD, ONCE SHE GOT HER FOOT IN THE DOOR, NOTHING WAS IMPORTANT EXCEPT WHAT SHE THOUGHT. SHE JUST THOUGHT SHE COULD DO WHAT SHE WANTED TO DO. I EVEN LET HER KNOW THAT HER TWEENS MIGHT DIE FOR THE EVIL SHE EXPOSED THE PUBLIC TO. THAT BITCH IS EVIL.
    THE BITCH IS DEAD
    THE BITCH IS DEAD

    WE ARE THE HOPE AND STRENGTH

  11. Some people trip themselves and become very defensive when they are hit with the truth. Thank you again for this update.

    I updated the Knox file yesterday. Oh my…

  12. That shouldn’t be too difficult because they will use the facts, which is an unknown element to Nancy disGrace. 🙂

  13. Thank you and only the best will be able to beat her at her own game……

  14. Jan.25,2010 Nancy Grace, and she’s afraid and panicking about her depo being videotaped about her criminal actions will be manipulated by the media.

    JANUARY 25, 2010–Television host Nancy Grace, who has made a career of berating people live on the air, is worried that her videotaped deposition this week in a wrongful death lawsuit might be leaked to the media, which could then “cut and splice” and “manipulate” her words into sound bites that would appear “wholly out of context,” which, by the way, is exactly what Nancy Grace does continuously against victims of most cases she covers on her show. Sounds like Nancy is scared enough to show up drunk again at this upcoming deposition scheduled for Thursday, then to later explain why she was shown as being highly suspicious in all her answers, which she would attribute to her known and admitted difficulties Nancy says she still suffers from alcohol and drug problems. In an emergency motion filed today in U.S. District Court in Ocala, Florida, Grace’s lawyers asked a judge to either bar the filming of her deposition this Thursday or issue a protective order prohibiting dissemination of the video. Grace, “/archive/1121061grace1.html” by the parents of Melinda Duckett, a 21-year-old Florida woman who committed suicide in 2006 a day after she was cross-examined by the CNN Headline News host about the whereabouts of her missing two-year-old son. Police have described Duckett as the prime suspect in the disappearance of her son Trenton, who has not been found. In the motion, a copy of which you’ll find below, Grace’s attorneys noted that “there already have been threats to Ms. Grace during the tendency of this lawsuit,” adding that if the videotape were to surface pre-trial, such a leak would “serve no purpose but to further harass, embarrass, and intimidate Ms. Grace and corrupt the jury pool.” In a response filed this afternoon, Duckett’s relatives called Grace’s legal maneuvering a “frivolous, untruthful motion,” since they had previously agreed to keep her videotaped testimony confidential. Grace’s deposition is scheduled for 9 AM Thursday in the Atlanta offices of Holland & Knight, her lawyers. (7 pages)

    http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0125101grace1.html
    But, thats what happens to many out-of-control drunks and drug users 🙁

  16. Or maybe she killed herself because she knew she was going to be arrested because she killed a baby and would spend the rest of her life in prison. Maybe the lawsuit was an attempt to cash in on deep pockets from people who did nothing to save that child from a psychotic woman. Envy of a successful woman is evident in these kind of criticisms.

  17. Mike Appleton,

    Realized I didn’t reply to this while closing out a browser I’ve had open for the past week.

    You went to law school because of Kant? I actually saw law school as an escape from philosophy. My entrance essay was all about ‘cardinality’ (i.e. expressing a desire for knowledge that has a direct connection with the world). I’m pretty sure I made up my mind right after reading an essay by Derrida about the difference between the word ‘difference’ spelled with an ‘e’ and differAnce spelled with an ‘a’.

  18. Maybe the crazies on the right are taking her lead … make wild, hurtful, untrue statements and maybe someone will “pop the prez”! I think that kind of talk is very, VERY dangerous! But … we have freedom of speech.

  20. I too am glad you’re posting again Mike A, I hope you’ve been well.
    —————–

    Bob,Esq: “P.S. A dirty fact about Rachel: Did you know that on one of her radio shows she was so amazed by a “There was no moon landing conspiracy” site that she advised her listeners to check it out. Not so much because she believed the conclusion; but she had a hard time answering some of the claims — most of which require a basic comprehension of photography and lighting and a high school understanding of physics.

    So yes Rachel is incredibly smart, but she has her weak sides just like the rest of us.”
    ===

    That’s one of the best things about RM, she doesn’t just make stuff up where her knowledge ends, like many do.

Comments are closed.