Author nancy grace New York Times we will be discussing her practical and invaluable book, dont be a victim fighting back against americas crime wave. Thats just ahead. This this is a lifesaving bookt empowers you a safe in the face of daily dangers. Its packed with practical advice, priceless prevention takes and with christmas and hanukkah just around the corner you want to make sure you buy copies for everyone on your list, arguing that you care about. To purchase the book is check your local jcc website for their independent booksellers. The book also available from the official bookseller of the in jcc a and the new national jcc consortium a cappella books. I know you have a lot of questions for nancy, so please use the q a feature at the bottom of your screen as we will try to read as many of them as possible a little bit later in the hour. We respectfully request that you please dont put your questions in the chat because, well, i wont be looking there. I dont even know how to look there. Now that we dont waste a single minute, lets get to nights event running with little bit about our special guest. Nancy grace is an awardwinning legal journalist, victims rights advocate and now four times over New York Times bestselling author of four macbooks. She hosts the daily crime stories with nancy grace on sirius xm and appears regularly on abcs 20 20 and nightline as well as daily mail tv. Thats just the tip of the iceberg. We will be talking about some of her other tv project of the late as well. Shes a founder and publisher of crime online. Com, a digital platform that investigates breaking crime news highlighting missing people, trying to help solve unsolved homicides, a lot of information these days on dna and now how it is used to solve crimes. Unless you been living under a proverbial rock for the last couple of decades are also well aware that 90 was a force behind hln operate a program for many years, nancy grace. Please, if you will, welcome our very special guest, and a person i am proud to call both a colleague and friend, nancy grace. Hi, john. Thank you so much everyone for inviting me. This is a big thrill for me. Thank you. We are going to have a lot of fun. Nancy, i want to make certain we duly point of time to discuss this amazing book, but i feel we need to lay some groundwork, sort of set the scene. One thing ive learned about you during our three years working together is that you like to tell a story the way i do, chronologically. Thats one of the many philosophies we share. I would love it if you could take us back, take us down first two middle georgia and back to your growing up years. Its really ironic that you landed in a in a career centerd around crying because thats a word you really didnt hear very often, if at all, when you were growing up. John, youre right. I grew up in unincorporated meck county on a red dirt road. The bookmobile from the library would come out to serve the needy children and parked directly in front of our house. I love the bookmobile. Not only could i read, mostly in the summer, all day but it had airconditioning and i knew nothing but airconditioning. I thought it was just wonderful, that they would park directly in front of our house. We would go out and get to bring books, come back maybe two or three weeks later. I grew up as far as i i could , john, there were pine trees and soybean fields. One of our favorite things to do was to go to a deep, fast Running Stream where somebody tied a rope to a tree limb, and you would run as fast as you could holding on, swing out way over the water, and if you any good at all i guess is natural instinct, you would start running the moment you came back in. Thats how i i grew up. We could ride our bikes or play in kelly got dark, and i would come home to the church bells in the steeple singing god will take care of you. We didnt know about a world of hate and crime, john. We didnt know anything about it. We were studying shakespeare and literature to become a shakespearean literature professor. And just before my wedding my fiancee, he was murdered. And he was shot five times in the neck, in the face and in the head and his world ended. My world exploded. His family was thrown into grief, and it was such a dark time for me. I really dont have the words to describe it. I didnt want to live at all. I lost down to about 89 pounds. I couldnt eat. My mother had to stop the clock in her home because i couldnt stand to hear the kicking. When i went back to school, finally, they let me back in, my undergrad at mercer, i had to go, when back to law school to help other kind victims come and that is what i i did. Because up until that point you headed toward teaching literature, specifically shakespeare. Yes, thats really all i wanted to do. I am adjusting my screen as we talk. We did not see zune or anything like it in law school. If you ever see my knee, please note thats what happened. [laughing] of course you never ever get over Something Like you experienced with the loss of teeth. However, when you did begin to slowly sort of assessing what was next in your life, how did you start on the path that eventually brought you to atlanta . As i said i dropped out of school and i had never told on a plane before. My parents sent me to live with my sister in philadelphia. She at the time was a professor at the Wharton School teaching there. I stayed with her and that was really when you hit me. I saw all the students going back to school and crowding into the bookstore there at wharton, and i felt the need i would go back and try to get into law school. Once i got through undergrad come with my shakespearean literature degree, i wanted to go. I got to law school. I had one recommendation to get into law school, my sunday school teacher. Really . That was i didnt even know what i was doing. I mean, for petes sake, when they got into undergrad i filled out my application with a pencil. I didnt know anything, okay . I didnt even know to write with a black pen. A least you could change her mind with a pencil. Dont discount ms. Jeanette johnson who was my recommendation, okay . She ran our sunday school, i thought so i first heard the word hypocrisy. Not liking of the birds because they had discovered others. Anyway, her letter i think single handily got me into law school. By the way, john, im reading that book to my children right now. Are you really . Yes, i am. I get into law school, and at first i couldnt get into the das office because i experienced so i was a clerk to a federal judge. Then it worked in antitrust, Consumer Protection division of the federal trade commission a couple years. I finally made it in, finally made it in. And i applied in philadelphia and atlanta and one of the boroughs in new york. I got in atlanta first and thats where i i went. I want summer with a a very hih level of country i only wanted to practice i wanted somewhere i was interested in slip and falls come making a lot of money in a private law firm. I didnt care about billable hours. I did not want to chase ambulances. All i wanted, and want, is it would the bad guys behind bars. And you know what . It worked. For the next ten years in innercity atlanta thats all i did. I had the good fortune, john, of having the single oldest trial judge in Fulton County. I was in his courtroom, luther albertson. Why was it such a blessing . Because he was so old, he wasnt part of the mandatory retirement act. He was already in. It worked to my benefit at the time. He was hell bent on proving that he was fit to be on the bench. So he wanted to keep the lowest gl account, as we call it, and the courthouse. That means you have the fewest you have so many filings and we can each courtroom. You wanted to keep the lows chilkat. In other words, the least number of people in jail waiting for you, the judge, to resolve their case. If you had a high gl account you were shunned. It means you are lazy, you are not pleading cases. We kept the lowest gl account which means i was on trial every other week. Very often i would have three trials going at once. I would start off with one of my most serious one, a homicide. Once i struck the jury to try the case that jury would come out. The next band would come in. Typically a less complicated case, like a robbery, lets jt pretend. Once that jury without the next year would come in and i would to throw down. I was at multiple juries going at the same time. Thats how i try to many cases, thanks to judge albertson. He would always say lets keep the lights on in the courthouse, ms. Grace, and we did. Do you remember the first time that you came facetoface with a really serious crime, why not just took your breath away, after your experience with keith but while youre there and atlanta . Do you remember the first time that you just really blown back by a crime . John, there were so many. I mean, i remember the first time i ever walked into the courtroom. It wasnt until i was witness in keiths murder trial, and i did not see the murder but hes been at home, and my parents, before he left for work that monday morning back in athens. He was working on a construction crew in the summer and about to finish his geology degree, and he left at lunchtime to get everyone a soft drink. He came back, it was remote site, john. I got into it been fired i think before keith can want to work that summer was waiting and just unloaded at the company truck. Thats how he was killed. When i went in the courtroom i remember testifying. Everything was so quiet but i could hear my boots on the floor. It was like a marble floor. I walk by the state table, john, and i saw for the first time keiths bloody denim shirt that he had been wearing that morning when he left home. And i kept walking, and i passed the defendants table animate the defendants eyes as he immediately looked down. I didnt realize who or what they were, and they looked down. He couldnt even look at me. I turned and walked out of the courtroom. That was first time id ever been in a courthouse even. The cases sometimes, john, they are so distinct in my mind. I remember prosecuting child molestation cases with children as young as three and five with the mother woodside with a boyfriend or the husband. It always happened that way. Horrible abuse on children. Murders over a five dollars drug debt. I remember ms. Leola, the mother of her, her son was murdered over a drug debt. She was the finest lady. I remember going to her home and she has a beautiful living room. Everything was white. White carpet, white silver, white everything and she had a covered in plastic. And i went come i sat down the sofa [laughing] she became one of my dearest friends come to rest her soul. And i remember trying that case, and when she wanted to sit in the courtroom, and i remember when i put the medical examiner on the stand and he is describing her son dying, i looked back because i would know within the family out. She just kept needing, and she looked at me and she nodded and she just looked down and kept knitting. When i was given that closing statement, i looked over at h, she was knitting. She smiled at me and she nodded, and i kept going. John, i remember so many cases. One, no one case is more important than the next. Will win did the tv come ine picture . Thats a funny story. How did this happen . I remember. Exactly. Every once in a while we would get what we called Silk Stocking defense lawyer. That means they made money. This was a guy from king and spalding which was the biggest law firm in the city of atlanta, all across the country. I remember working the calendar, and arraignment calendar. At 150 new foundation and incomes a Silk Stockings loaded. You can do because he suits are nice and tailored and really fancy italian shoes, and not a regular, not one of the usual courthouse hacks. He came out and he said, i am fred koechner from king and spalding and im representing soandso. Im like him you are from king and spalding and your representing a killer . I looked down and it was resentencing of the case that up and try to long ago and he had it pro bono. Some judge had push it off on king and spalding and they had to deal with it. We handled the case. It had been tried use before and had been through the appellate system. He invited me to this conference christmas party. I usually dont fraternize with Defense Attorneys but i what to the christmas party. While i was there i met a producer from seeing it. Somebody said you should have nancy on. She tries cases all the time. I didnt really put much stock in it, but sure enough i ended up guesting on some afternoon show and would literally run in heels back to the courthouse. Thats how it started. Then court tv to find out about one of my cases. John, it was a serial rape case. They said he might if it cameras in the courtroom . I said i gave up cursing, or try to. I said these ladies dont want to be on tv. One of them was standing ten or 12 feet away from me and, of course, the come to the courtroom. They said wait a a minute. We didnt do anything wrong. We are not ashamed. Hes the one who should be ashamed. We will do it. Im like, oh, okay. Excuse me, we will do. They covered that and then a murder case. I was totally oblivious of the camera. Epcot me hitching up my pantyhose several times. Thats not pretty, okay . [laughing] but thats how it happened. And then one day i was invited to sit on a panel of socalled experts, which means outoftown lawyers, in new york. I remember a funny feeling when i got that invitation and i went, you know what . I may go. I went and i fortuitously set between the late great Johnny Cochran and an excellent trial lawyer who straight off the William Kennedy smith debacle, roy black. We got in a huge fight and they said hey, you want to do it he say she say show with cochran . I said no, i had a serial rape case i to try the next week, another one. Then my elected judicial attorney who is like a grandfather to me, john, retired. I called them back and said hey, you know that job . Ill take it. I moved to new york with jew boxes of clothes, a curling iron at 300. The first thing i did was by three tvs. I had one each from sub wouldnt miss the news no matter what happened. Right. So you could do your homework. Literally i had a mattress on the floor but i had tv so i get cash and so i would always know what is happening and not be incorrect on the air. Do you remember the day when you finally felt at home and thought, this is where im supposed to be, when he came to thinking about crime on tv . I felt that way the first amended jury case. Really. Was yeah. It felt like a bird out of the cage. Believe it or not i was the one who would never raise my hand. Really . I told you i did totally different personality for keith murder, but i dont remember that girl at all. Once in a while i have kind of remembrance but not really too much. But when i tried that case, and john, shoplifting, this poor little guy who so pale, shorter shorter than even, had gone to the kmart they used to be a kmart on piedmont. Lynn burgers. Yes. He grabbed a cd player, stuff it down the crotch of his pants. He went all the way up to the front and then chickened out and left it. Well, the security guards at kmart couldnt wait to throw on asphalt and dragon by kent and resting. I had to try the case. Thats my first jury trial, a shoplifting or nothing was taken. [laughing] on attempted shoplifting. I had to tell the jury come when you go to the Grocery Store, do you stick the extend your pants . I hope not. So i got my first conviction on attempted shoplifting. I faked his people to say straight probation. They wouldnt do it here that guy had so many drug arrests. I begged his wife, take the patient i just dont want him to go to jail for this. But any infraction would have revoked his probation so it had to go to trial. That was the day, the week that the airconditioning when out in the Fulton County courthouse. I thought i had to dress like aa man. That was back then. I had on a blue suit, a shirt up to hear with the safety pin righty. My hair up here. By the time is over my sure it was often my hair was over here, the bun. [laughing] that sure was untucked and i have all black eyeliner ms care. For petes sake, going to pass out. Got a conviction to thats the first time i knew that thats what i was supposed to be. One of the things that are truly admire about you is the way that you always keep family first. In fact, its what made your decision to depart hln and take off in other directions. Although we will talk about them a little bit im sure in the minutes ahead, i want to make sure we do include husband in the twins. Whats the latest with david, john david and lucy . I see another i hate it and love it. Because i dont want them to grow and go away because im so proud of them. They are my whole world. I cant wait to wake them up in the morning. Lucy has declared herself a vegetarian. Really . Which means i have to make two meals. I know, well then you would ever let know about impossible meet. Shes wonderful. My son is they make all as. They certainly did not get that from their mother. [laughing] they love school. They just played and a church choir castanets. Really . Percussion. She plays the clarinet and the piano and he plays the piano and the saxophone. They are just my whole world. Just so much to say about them. And your sweet mom lives with you as well. Well, okay. [laughing] tiger meat. After my dad went to heaven, my mom in with me, oh, dear lord. Between her, lucy and the guinea pig i dont have a chance. [laughing] we got a rescue dog, fat boy, a rescue cat, cinnamon, and two rescue guinea pigs. Yes, big ziskin abby and chloe. I have to clean their guinea pig poop seven in. When youre kicking back with your latte, im in there shoveling guinea pig. Think about it. [laughing] anyway, i couldnt be happier and has been still alive. I have not murdered him yet. People always say why isnt he in the pictures . Because hes taking the pictures. Right, right. Lets finally get to the meat of the hour. The title of this book is, honestly, everything you need to know about whats inside. The subtitle, fighting back against americas crime wave, thats not just a throwaway. It is key because i i produce a number of occasions, including just this past week during the recording of a program that you didnt realize you were a victim when keith was murdered. Thats what a lot of crime victims families dont realize, is that they are crime victims as well. We were talking about i know exactly what referring to, and that would be the Scott PetersonDeath Penalty sentence reversal. Based on the fact that some of the jurors were not question individually during voir dire which would steadily is french to speak the truth. One juror that made it on, juror number seven, i remember i nicknamed her strawberry shortcake going to trial because shared this beautiful red hair and this comic person on