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Objection! How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System

Review

Objection! How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System

Nancy Grace! To know her is to love her. To disagree with her is just plain crazy. Anyone who's seen Nancy on "Closing Arguments," "Nancy Grace" or "Larry King Live" is familiar with her outspoken yet heartfelt opinions on a number of topics. Whether you agree or disagree with her views, you have to respect the intensity she brings to the screen and now to the page.

After her fiance, Keith, was brutally gunned down just months before their wedding, Nancy's plans changed from the goals of wife, mother and schoolteacher to a future in law school and then a fight for the side of good against evil in the courtrooms of Atlanta's Fulton County courts.

The retirement of the elected district attorney years later precipitated another job change, and Nancy found herself in front of the cameras on Court TV where she has continued her fight for right and entertained us at the same time.

In OBJECTION! Nancy confirms what a lot of us already know --- that America's justice system is not infallible. Over recent years, we've seen numerous celebrity defendants freed when public opinion and common sense tells most of us they're guilty. We've seen criminals turned into celebrities as they make a fortune selling their stories to the public, who thrive on the juicy details of the latest scandal. We've seen defense attorneys whose goal is not to provide an equitable defense for the wrongly accused but whose objective is to get the guilty off at any cost, including the absolute annihilation of the characters of witnesses and even victims.

As should we all be, Nancy's mad as hell and she's not going to take it anymore! While most of us sit at home and shake our heads in disgust, Nancy is informing us, inciting us, and encouraging us to see that change takes place in a system that doesn't always work.

With regard to the Michael Jackson trial, Nancy says, "No other suspect in a child-molestation case, especially with the specter of additional victims surfacing, would be handled with kid gloves like Jackson." And it's true. "Regular" defendants do not get booked in at their convenience and under their own steam, arriving "for fingerprints and book-in in a shiny chauffeured SUV."

When it comes to her fellow attorneys, Nancy has no qualms about referring to them as "ambulance chasers" and "whores of the court." While there may be some "respectable, silk-stocking lawyers" out there, Nancy likens them to "the well-dressed hooker sitting at the bar in the Ritz nursing a Cosmo." Nancy doesn't mince words and we're not left in the dark as to her opinions.

Anyone who hates lawyers, is sickened by the 24/7 media coverage of scandal, and believes there are serious faults in today's justice system will love Nancy's book. Those who would just like a few more inside details and some juicy gossip from recent years' headlines also will find what they're looking for. Whether you love her or love to hate her, Nancy Grace's OBJECTION! is fast-paced, thought-provoking, and just a plain good read.

Reviewed by Amie Taylor on January 13, 2011

Objection! How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System
Nancy Grace, with Diane Clehane

  • Publication Date: June 8, 2005
  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Hyperion
  • ISBN-10: 1401301800
  • ISBN-13: 9781401301804