The Kickham Comment - Boston Criminal Attorney Blog
Here’s an interesting case – controversy, actually – that involves a hybrid of criminal law and tort law – specifically, the tort of wrongful death.
Famous television legal journalist Nancy Grace is known far and wide for her aggressive, take-no-prisoners on-air persona. Her interview style is very probative, and she doesn’t let evasive interview subjects off the hook easily. Ms. Grace is a former prosecutor, and it forms her approach to the subjects she covers on her HLN cable network show, “Nancy Grace” – HLN’s most popular show. (The show, of course, covers criminal law almost exclusively.) Ms. Grace has an interesting background. Professionally, she was a career prosecutor for almost a decade in the Atlanta-Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney’s office. She prosecuted primarily felony cases involving serial murder, serial rape, serial child molestation and arson. In sum, the most gruesome of cases. Personally, Ms. Grace was the victim of violent crime herself, when her fiancé was murdered many years ago. She has stated publicly that this tragedy will never leave her – understandably so.
The sum of this personal tragedy and professional experience is that Ms. Grace takes a decidedly pro-victim philosophy on her show. Because of this, a lot of defense attorneys across the United States doesn’t care for her, thinking her biased towards victims before the fact, in any case she examines. One prominent criminal defense attorney has publicly said of her, “Nancy has never met a victim she didn’t love and never met a suspect she didn’t want to tar and feather.”
Hmm. As a Boston criminal defense attorney myself, I think this characterization is unfair to Ms. Grace. Further, I’d point out that the very defense attorneys who serve as her detractors, accusing her of constant bias towards victims, aren’t willing to point out that they, too, are biased – in favor of defendants. That’s understandable – I can be that way myself at times. It’s natural for opposing attorneys to be this way – but under the aegis of full disclosure, Nancy’s detractors ought to admit this before criticizing her.
Which brings us to today’s subject: Almost four years ago, a 2 year-old boy by the name of Trenton Duckett went missing in Leesburg, Florida. The boy was not found after his disappearance, and has never been. The boy’s mother, Melinda Duckett, was a 21 year-old woman, and had been questioned by police about the boy’s disappearance. On September 7 2006, Ms. Duckett appeared by telephone interview on Ms. Grace’s show, to discuss the case. As the interview began, Ms. Grace seemed sympathetic to Ms. Duckett, but as the interview progressed, Ms. Duckett declined to answer some of Ms. Grace’s quite reasonable questions about her own whereabouts the day of her son’s disappearance. During Grace’s interview, the host increased the scope of her questions regarding Ms. Duckett’s activities and whereabouts the day her son went missing, and Ms. Duckett became evasive, refusing to answer. At one point, Ms. Grace demanded of Ms. Duckett, “Where were you? Why aren’t you telling us where you were that day?” Ms. Duckett answered (rather blithely,) “Because I don’t want to.” When, understandably incredulous, Ms. Grace pressed, “Why?”, Ms. Duckett remained silent.
The next day, just hours before the interview with Ms. Grace was set to air, Ms. Duckett shot herself in the head, killing herself. The broader media picked up the story, it grew, and about a week later, Good Morning America (GMA) interviewed Ms. Grace, who insisted that “If anything, I would suggest that guilt made her commit suicide” “To suggest that a 15- or 20-minute interview can cause someone to commit suicide is focusing on the wrong thing.” Melinda Duckett’s parents, Bethann and William Eubank, along with her aunt Kathleen Calvert, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Grace two months after Melinda’s Sept. 7, 2006, appearance on Ms. Grace’s show. The plaintiffs allege that Ms. Grace’s questioning caused Ms. Duckett to commit suicide, and they want damages.
Legally speaking, the plaintiffs here are alleging that Ms. Grace, by her questioning and treatment of Duckett, caused “intentional infliction of emotional distress” on Ms. Duckett, which caused her suicide. What they don’t mention as prominently in their press releases, is that Ms. Duckett had attempted suicide before, and that she never did account for her whereabouts the day her son went missing. As is normal for a civil case like this, it dragged on for quite some time, and depositions were scheduled. Recently, a videotaped deposition of Ms. Grace was scheduled by the plaintiffs, and Ms. Grace’s lawyers filed a motion to forbid the deposition from being videotaped. Predictably, the plaintiffs’ attorneys objected, and earlier this week the court granted the plaintiffs’ motion, ruling that Ms. Grace’s deposition would be video-recorded. From a public relations perspective, I can understand why Grace’s lawyers would want to quash videotaping her deposition. Nancy is a public figure, and if a video of something like that hit the internet, it could cause enormous imbalance in the case. But as videotaping of dispositions is highly common I think this was a fair ruling.
What I want to comment more on, are the accusations that Ms.Grace did anything wrong in her interview of Melinda Duckett. I’ve watched this interview, several times. I see nothing inappropriate, abusive, or improper in Ms. Grace’s questioning of Ms. Duckett. I think the allegations of intentional infliction of emotional distress are baseless – and I say this as a Massachusetts wrongful death lawyer, as well as a Boston criminal defense lawyer. Whether this interview subject had never committed or not, I see nothing in Ms. Grace’s conduct or demeanor that meets the legal definition of “intentional infliction of emotional distress.” More so, it is more than relevant to note that Ms. Duckett, in refusing to answer logical, reasonable questions posed by Ms. Grace during this interview, not only refused to answer the questions, but also refused to even state why she wouldn’t answer them. While not dispositive of guilt in itself, it’s inferential in the least.
It’s been pointed out by some of Ms. Grace’s detractors that liability might hinge here, in the pretext that was offered to Ms. Duckett, for appearing on the show in the first place. In other words, such persons have suggested that if a booking editor at HLN had induced Ms. Duckett to appear on the show with false assurances that Ms. Grace only wanted to help her find her baby, that Ms. Grace was entirely sympathetic toward her, and falsely represented that Ms. Grace would, in essence, ‘treat her with kid gloves’ only to aggressively interrogate her once on-air, that liability may result from such deception. This is a highly speculative and risky theory. Any intelligent adult appearing as an interview subject on a criminal affairs television show, would have to reasonably be on notice that any variety of questions could be asked.
As a criminal defense attorney who earns his living on the opposite side of the legal aisle that Ms. Grace occupies, I find her an admirable attorney, and an admirable person. While I agree that her deposition should have been subject to video recording as is routine civil practice in many such cases, I think her detractors should cut her a break. She speaks her mind and she does it in an ethical, professional manner.
And there shouldn’t be any liability that results from that.