Objection!

Both Nancy Grace and Catherine Crier have books on the market that lay blame for the problems in our criminal justice system. Grace's book, Objection! : How High-Priced Defence Attorneys, Celebrity Defendants, and a 24/7 Media Have Hijacked Our Criminal Justice System, is co-authored by Diane Clehane and is not yet released but available for purchase through Amazon. The title makes it clear whom Grace blames. Crier's book, The Case Against Lawyers, appeared in 2002. And, of course this title reveals that the attorneys are all to blame -- Defense attorneys.

Neither Grace nor Crier seems to be the least bit aware of how they are contributing to the demise of our criminal justice system. For example, why doesn't Grace consider herself part of the 24/7 media that covers true crime? Why doesn't she consider her rash and harsh judgment on just about every person ever suspected by the police to be a negative? Does she not realize how many disciples she has, and the influence her judgments have on their minds?

Take for example, her charge against Richard Ricci, in the Elisabeth Smart kidnapping. Dozens of times she was heard to ask, "what about the 1000 miles?" "How can he explain those 1000 miles?" Or her accusations that Mrs. Ricci was lying to cover up for her husband. And then when the truth is known, that Ricci had absolutely nothing to do with Smart's kidnapping, to refuse to recant her accusations, continuing to defend them with, "well he was the most logical suspect." No, he wasn't, Nancy Grace. He wasn't a logical suspect at all because he had a verifiable alibi. You simply refused to admit that the Salt Lake City police bungled the investigation by concentrating on Ricci and refusing to believe the younger sister's identification. You simply refused to admit you had jumped to a wrong conclusion and that you had absolutely no foundation for that conclusion.

And in the case of Scott Peterson, how many times did Grace describe the hair as wrapped "round and round and round" the pliers, when in fact all Detective Hendee had to do was open the pliers, give a little shake, and the hair fell off? And how many times did Grace say Laci had an ultrasound on December 23, and continued to do so in spite of being corrected by other panelists. Grace is long on rash judgments, but very short on facts.

Catherine Crier is no less a hypocrite. Does she think her enthusiastic revelations on CourtTV are helping the criminal justice system when most of them are in violation of a court-imposed gag order? How does she justify such behavior? No defense attorney has provided her with those sealed documents. They came only from one source, the prosecution, and she willingly participates in violating the gag order. She is in contempt of court.

Neither Grace nor Crier is a legitimate voice on the demise of the criminal justice system. How can they correct a flawed system when they are one of the flaws? If they truly want to positively affect the system and enable it to work as our founding fathers intended, they will radically change their attitude towards citizens who are accused and grant them every right afforded them by the Constitution.

A good place to start would be to replace their instinctive and vindictive presumption of guilt mentality for the nobler presumption of innocence ideal. Then they can follow through with reporting only facts and refusing to participate in the violation of court orders. Then they will be part of the solution, not the problem itself.