Nancy Strikes Again

Update: The Fulton County Daily Report has a nice write-up of Nancy's recent troubles with appeals courts. As I predicted, this is what happened when they asked Nancy for comment:

"It's a lifetime of work," she said, noting that she decided to become a lawyer after her fiance was murdered.

Echoing the tone she frequently takes on her TV show, which often focuses on crime victims, Grace asserted that Stephens was responsible for murdering three young people.

"Who knows what they could have become today?" she asked.

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Original post:

The hits with Nancy Grace just keep on coming. Thanks to The Volokh Conspiracy via Alaskablawg, I discovered this opinion from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It is a habeas appeal from one of Nancy's old murder cases. The legal issues are pretty cut and dry. The defendant alleged that he was denied due process of law because of Nancy's misconduct. Bound by the AEDPA restrictions to determine whether the state courts made unreasonable applications of constitutional law, the court denied habeas relief to the defendant (I know all the habeas lawyers out there will be shocked!). But, if you look closely, you'll see this is no ordinary habeas denial. The court actually names Nancy as the prosecutor accused of misconduct. That is almost unheard of in appellate opinions--even in cases where they actually overturn the conviction based on the misconduct. And, although the federal court ultimately determined that the defendant wasn't entitled to habeas relief, they had some choice words (by federal appeals court standards) for Nancy. According to them, Nancy "fail[ed] . . . to fulfill her responsibilities" as a prosecutor, and "'played fast and loose' with her ethical duties." I'm sure that in Nancy's mind, it was all justified because she knew the guy was guilty.