Nancy Grace may have a great conviction that has helped put the bad guys away, but she hasn’t always been right. In June 2002, 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City residence in the wee hours of the morning. A manhunt for the missing teenager was launched thereafter, but it bore no fruit. That year, Richard Ricci, who was a suspect in the Smart case, died while in police custody. All along, Grace had expressed her belief in Ricci’s guilt.
As it was uncovered when Smart was found when she was spotted in public with her kidnapper in 2003, the girl had been abducted by Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee. Speaking to the Daily Beast in 2020 about the Smart case, Grace said she had a change of heart about Ricci: “Once I listened to his [Ricci’s] wife speak out on his behalf and give her story, I was very clear that I believed her … That, however, is rarely reported.”
In 2006, Grace welcomed Smart onto her show, CNN’s “Nancy Grace,” to discuss a bill she was supporting about the national sex offender registry, but the host first bombarded the victim with questions about what her life was like while she was abducted. “I’m not here to give an interview on that. I’m here to help push this bill through,” Smart remarked in response, later adding when Grace continued the uncomfortable questioning, “To be frankly honest, I really don’t appreciate you bringing all this up.”
