Joan Walsh Quotations

Nancy Grace is a victims' rights advocate and former prosecutor who is the host of a self-titled CNN Headline News show. She also anchors Court TV's "Closing Arguments" and has co-authored the book Objection! -- How High-Priced Defense Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System.

On the second Michael Jackson trial, speaking on "Larry King Live," CNN, Feb. 21, 2003: "But I'm telling you, this boy, two-thirds of this can be corroborated by other people. So why would he lie about the molestation part? It is in graphic detail. It just seems true... I think Michael Jackson walks. And I think it's a disgrace. He's guilty."

To the jury foreman in the second trial: "Mr. Rodriguez? Can I ask you a question? What do you think a grown man up in his 40s is doing sleeping with one little boy after the next, all by himself, locked up in his bedroom, every night? That doesn't bother you? It bothers me."

"I'm on a search for the truth," she says during a recent visit to the District to promote her new book, "Objection!," in which the former prosecutor calls defense attorneys "dangerous" and compares them to pigs. The way Grace sees it, prosecutors want to do what's right, whereas defense attorneys are unethical and just want to win. She'd never cross over to what she calls the "dark side" because "I don't really want to have any part of getting guilty people off."

On [defense lawyers]: "They lie, they cheat, they'll say anything. They walk a thin line that I don't even want to get near. Like in the David Westerfield case. They knew the whole time he did it, because he knew where her body was, and they used that as a bargaining chip to improve his situation. But when that didn't work [the police found the body on their own], they proceeded to drag the Van Dams through the mud. It's disgusting. Some people argue that the prosecution just wants to get a conviction. What joy would I get out of sending the wrong person to jail?"

On on-air debates: "When I get into an argument on the air, the man can always yell louder, if a man fights like hell, he's being forceful; if I raise my voice and fight like hell, I'm being a shrew and a bitch."

On the death penalty:(the argument that it costs more to appeal death row convictions than to imprison someone for life.) "Ken Starr gave me the perfect comeback on that," she scoffs. "How many millions of dollars were we willing to spend to show that the President had oral sex?"

At the end of each show, Grace usually says goodbye to her viewers with some form of the following message: "I want to thank all of my guests for being with us tonight. But my biggest thank you is to you, for being with us, and inviting us into your homes. Coming up, headlines from all around the world. I'm Nancy Grace, signing off for tonight. Hope to see you right here tomorrow night, eight o'clock sharp Eastern, and until then, goodnight, friend."

"Where were you? Why aren't you telling us where you were that day? Ms Duckett, you are not telling us for a reason. What is the reason? You refuse to give even the simplest facts of where you were with your son before he went missing. It is day 12."