Nancy Grace: Blake trial puts spotlight on blame-the-victim mentality
By Nancy Grace
CNN
Editor's Note: Nancy Grace appears on CNN.com's Law Center with an interactive column, "Seeking Justice." Her column appears in conjunction with her hour-long CNN Headline News program, "Nancy Grace," which televises Monday-Friday, at 8 p.m. Grace invites a public dialogue. You can respond to Grace by sending comments to "Nancy Grace."
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(CNN) -- Once, just this once, I will forgo an analysis of facts supporting guilt or innocence in a high-profile murder trial, this time California v. Robert Blake. Guilt or innocence aside, the case has already morphed from a single murder count into a double murder. Bonny Lee Bakley was murdered and buried along with another victim, her reputation.
The defense is having a field day with Bakley even though obviously, she's not present in the courtroom. So why bother with a defense alibi, forensic duels, DNA battles, or preparing Blake for the stand to tell the truth. They have Bonny Bakley to blame!
Look, I know Bakley had a number of lovers, last time I looked, that's not a felony. I know she scored small-time money from men she scammed through lonely-hearts ads in magazines. ... I know.
But I can only hope that a trial involving the most heinous crime on the books, the brutal taking of a human life, will not be reduced in the minds of the jurors to a popularity contest ... television star v. the dead victim who is no longer around to speak for herself.
If Bakley's murder is treated differently because, according to the defense, she was a "bad girl," then who's next? Whose life is devalued next in a court of law based on their identity, maybe based on their religion, gender, lifestyle, race, or politics?
Take a hard look at Lady Justice; she's blindfolded to the identity of both defendants and victims before her.
The Blake defense team's all-out attack on Bonny Bakley's character overshadows the attack that night, as she, unarmed and defenseless, sat unsuspecting in a darkened alley waiting for Blake, her husband to return.
She was shot in the head, at nearly point-blank range and died, struggling to breathe, face-up on a public street.
Who pulled the trigger? Up to a jury. It's up to us however, to evaluate the shameless blame-the-victim defense being offered up in the Blake courtroom as an excuse for lawyering. Bakley is being crucified today in our court. Who's to say that next time it won't be me ... or you?
Seeking justice,
Nancy Grace
The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of Nancy Grace.
