Catherine Crier

Last updated
Catherine Crier
Catherine Crier 2 by David Shankbone.jpg
Catherine Crier discussing her book about the Susan Polk case, Final Analysis.
Born
Catherine Jean Crier

Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Occupation(s)Author, television journalist, and former state elected judge.
Notable credit(s)Former Texas state judge and host of Catherine Crier Live, author of The Case Against Lawyers, A Deadly Game, Contempt, Final Analysis, and Patriot Acts.
Website www.patriotacts.com

Catherine Jean Crier is an American journalist and author of A Deadly Game and The Case Against Lawyers.

Contents

She was the youngest elected state judge in Texas history at age thirty and served as a Texas State District Judge for the 162nd District Court. [1] [2]

Crier is currently a managing partner in Cajole Entertainment, developing television, film, and documentary projects. [3] She regularly appears as a guest contributor and panelist on various news programs, conducts speaking engagements across the country, and blogs for The Huffington Post . [4] Her fifth book, Patriot Acts: What Americans Must Do to Save the Republic, was published in 2011. Her current events blog was launched to coincide with publication of the book.

Early life

Crier was born in Dallas, Texas in 1954 to Ann, a horse breeder and homemaker, and William Crier, a banker. [5] She has two sisters. In 1970, Crier's family bought a farm in a Dallas suburb where she hauled hay, cleaned stalls, and competed in Arabian horse shows across the Southwest. She attended Richardson High School. [6]

Crier entered the University of Texas at Austin at age 16, earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and international affairs, then received a Juris Doctor in two and a half years from Southern Methodist University School of Law. [7]

Career

Crier began her career in law in 1978 in the Dallas County District Attorney's office, starting as an Assistant District Attorney, then becoming Felony Chief Prosecutor. From 1982 to 1984, Crier was a civil litigation attorney with Riddle & Brown, handling complex business and corporate matters.

In 1984, she was elected to the 162nd District Court in Dallas County as a State District Judge, becoming the youngest elected state judge in Texas history.[ citation needed ] During her tenure on the bench, Crier also served as Administrative Judge for the Civil District Courts and worked with the ABA, National Judicial College, and Texas Legislature. Shortly after her election to a second term on the bench, a chance meeting with a television news executive led to a career change. [8]

Broadcast journalism career

In 1990, Crier began her television career at CNN. She was co-anchor of both Inside Politics ‘92, a daily show which followed the 1992 political process, and The World Today, the premier evening newscast. Additionally, she hosted Crier & Company, a live, half-hour news talk show. This show included a panel of female policy experts who discussed popular national and international issues. [9]

Crier joined ABC News in 1993, where she served as a correspondent on the network's primetime news magazine program 20/20 . [10] She was awarded a 1996 Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism for her work on the segment "The Predators" which examined nursing home abuses throughout the United States. [8] She was also a correspondent and regular substitute anchor for Peter Jennings on ABC's World News Tonight , as well as a substitute host for Ted Koppel on Nightline . [9] [11]

In 1996, Crier became one of the founding television anchors for the Fox News Channel with her prime time program, The Crier Report, a live, hour-long nightly show, during which she interviewed leading newsmakers of the day. Additionally, she co-anchored the evening news, election coverage and Fox Files, a magazine news show aired on the parent network. [12]

Crier joined Court TV's team of anchors in 1999. [13] She served as Executive Editor, Legal News Specials, in addition to hosting Catherine Crier Live , a live daily series, covering the day's "front-page" stories. Catherine Crier Live ran for six years until it was cancelled in 2007. [14] [15]

She also was a horse racing analyst for ESPN in 2004. [16]

Writing

Crier released her New York Times bestseller, The Case Against Lawyers in October 2002. Her second book, A Deadly Game: The Untold Story of the Scott Peterson Investigation became a #1 New York Times bestseller and was followed by Contempt – How the Right is Wronging American Justice, and Final Analysis: The Untold Story of the Susan Polk Murder Case. Her fifth book, Patriot Acts – What Americans Must Do to Save the Republic, was published in 2011.

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Rather</span> American broadcast journalist (born 1931)

Daniel Irvin Rather Jr. is an American journalist, commentator, and former national evening news anchor. He began his career in Texas, becoming a national name after his reporting saved thousands of lives during Hurricane Carla in September 1961. Rather spontaneously created the first radar weather report by overlaying a transparent map over a radar image of Hurricane Carla. In his first national broadcast, he helped initiate the successful evacuation of 350,000 people. He reported on some of the most significant events of the modern age, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Gulf War, 9/11, the Iraq War, and the war on terror.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Darlie Routier</span> American prisoner on death row

Darlie Lynn Peck Routier is an American woman from Rowlett, Texas, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of her five-year-old son Damon in 1996. She has also been charged with capital murder in the death of her six-year-old son, Devon, who was murdered at the same time as Damon. To date, Routier has not been tried for Devon’s murder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah T. Hughes</span> American jurist

Sarah Tilghman Hughes was an American lawyer and federal judge who served on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. She is best known as the judge who swore in Lyndon B. Johnson as President of the United States on Air Force One after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963. She is the first and only woman to have sworn in a US President. The photo depicting Hughes administering the oath of office to Johnson is widely viewed as the most famous photo ever taken aboard Air Force One.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Weddington</span> American lawyer and politician (1945–2021)

Sarah Catherine Ragle Weddington was an American attorney, law professor, advocate for women's rights and reproductive health, and member of the Texas House of Representatives. She was best known for representing "Jane Roe" in the landmark Roe v. Wade case before the United States Supreme Court. She also was the first female General Counsel for the US Department of Agriculture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan Hecht</span> American judge (born 1949)

Nathan Lincoln Hecht is the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Texas. A Republican from Dallas, Hecht was first elected to the Supreme Court in 1988 and was reelected to six-year terms in 1994, 2000 and 2006. He secured his fifth six-year term on November 6, 2012. He was appointed chief justice by Governor Rick Perry on September 10, 2013, and was sworn into that position by retiring Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson on October 1, 2013.

Susan Polk is an American woman convicted in June 2006 of second degree (unpremeditated) murder for the 2002 death of her husband Dr. Frank "Felix" Polk. Polk's trial, described by one correspondent as "circus-like", drew extensive media attention with its sensationalist elements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda Coffee</span> American lawyer (born 1942)

Linda Nellene Coffee is an American lawyer living in Dallas, Texas. Coffee is best known, along with Sarah Weddington, for arguing the precedent-setting United States Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade.

Jean Ann LeGrand-Casarez is an American lawyer and news correspondent for CNN and its sister network HLN. She formerly worked for TruTV until that network eliminated daytime trial coverage. As a correspondent for Court TV/TruTV, Casarez provided live daytime trial coverage, reporting on courtroom trials across the country; she covered such cases as the Coral Eugene Watts trial, the Kobe Bryant rape case, and Scott Peterson sentencing hearings. She was an anchor for Court TV's hourly Newsbreak. In addition to her current work for CNN, she is occasionally a substitute host for HLN's Current affairs show, Primetime Justice.

Sharon Faye Keller is the Presiding Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. She is a Republican.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara M. Lynn</span> American judge (born 1952)

Barbara M. G. Lynn is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, with chambers in Dallas, Texas.

Bernhardt Tiede II is an American mortician who was convicted of the November 19, 1996 murder of his companion, wealthy 81-year-old widow Marjorie "Marge" Nugent, in Carthage, Texas. He was 38 at the time of the murder.

Jean Hudson Boyd is an American judge who served as the Presiding Judge of Texas's 323rd District Court. The 323rd District Court serves Tarrant County, Texas, as its juvenile court. Boyd, a Republican, assumed office in 1995, but is known for her controversial 2013 probation sentencing of Ethan Couch, a 16-year-old who killed four people and injured 11 while driving drunk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Battaglia</span> American murderer

John David Battaglia Jr. was an American convicted murderer who was executed by the state of Texas for filicide. He was convicted of killing his two young daughters in May 2001 in an act of "ultimate revenge" against his estranged ex-wife, Mary Jeane Pearle, who had separated from him after his numerous instances of assault and violence. Battaglia was executed for the murders on February 1, 2018.

Diane Michelle Zamora is a former United States Naval Academy midshipman and convicted murderer who, in 1995, murdered Adrianne Jessica Jones, who she believed was a romantic rival for her ex-fiancé and accomplice, David Graham. Graham had confessed to giving Adrianne a ride home and having sex with her one month earlier, leading an enraged Zamora to demand that he kill Jones. In the early morning of December 4, 1995, Graham picked up Jones in Zamora's car while she hid in the hatchback. They went to a remote location and got into a struggle, at which point Zamora hit Jones over the head with weights and Graham shot her twice after she broke away from them.

Susan Hawk is an American attorney. She was the Dallas County District Attorney, elected as a Republican in 2014, until her resignation on October 1, 2016. Her opponent was Democrat Craig Watkins. She is the first female district attorney elected in Dallas. She was previously a state criminal district judge for nine years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Botham Jean</span> 2018 murder case in Texas

On the night of September 6, 2018, 26-year-old accountant Botham Jean was murdered in Dallas, Texas by off-duty Dallas Police Department patrol officer Amber Guyger, who entered Jean's apartment and fatally shot him. Guyger, who said that she had entered Jean's apartment believing it was her own and believed Jean to be a burglar, was initially charged with manslaughter. The absence of a murder charge led to protests and accusations of racial bias because Jean—an unarmed black man—was killed in his own home by a white off-duty officer who had apparently disregarded police protocols. On November 30, 2018, Guyger was indicted on a charge of murder. On October 1, 2019, she was found guilty of murder, and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment the following day. The ruling was upheld on appeal in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ada Brown (judge)</span> American judge (born 1974)

Ada Elene Brown is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. She is a former trial judge of the Dallas County courts and a former Justice of the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas. She is the first African-American woman federal judge nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate. She is also the first African American woman to sit as a federal judge in the 140- year-history of the Northern District of Texas. A citizen of the Choctaw Nation, Brown is also one of six actively serving Native American federal judges of 673 federal district court judges. When appointed to the federal bench, Brown became the only woman judge in the 233-year history of the Choctaw Nation to serve as a federal judge.

Sidney Katherine Powell is an American attorney, former federal prosecutor, and conspiracy theorist who attempted to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election. In August 2023, she was indicted along with Donald Trump and eighteen others in the prosecution related to the 2020 election in Georgia, arising from the attempt by the former president and his allies to subvert the election outcome in Georgia and other key states lost by Trump. In October 2023, as part of an agreement with Georgia prosecutors, she pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor counts of conspiring to intentionally interfere with the performance of election duties. She was sentenced to six years of probation and agreed to testify against the other defendants.

References

  1. McGonigle, Steve (November 7, 1984). "Walker says Reagan, not Crier, ousted him". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved 2009-05-24.
  2. Reischel, Diane (March 10, 1985). "Catherine Crier". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved 2009-05-24.
  3. Crier, Catherine. "Biography" . Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  4. "Blog Entries by Catherine Crier". Huffington Post. Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  5. "Catherine Crier Biography (1955?-)". www.filmreference.com. Retrieved 25 May 2018.
  6. Crier, Catherine (2011). Patriot Acts. New York, New York: Threshold Editions. p. 20. ISBN   978-1-4391-9492-8.
  7. Crier, Catherine (2011). Patriot Acts. New York, NY: Threshold Editions. p. 304. ISBN   978-1-4391-9494-2.
  8. 1 2 "Catherine Crier". American Entertainment International Speakers Bureau. Retrieved 18 June 2012.
  9. 1 2 "Barrick Lecture Series" . Retrieved 22 August 2012.
  10. "Crier to leave ABC News, host new program for Fox". Chicago Sun-Times. August 13, 1996.
  11. Tarrant, David (April 14, 1996). "Catherine Crier". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved 2009-05-24.
  12. "Catherine Crier". Premiere Speakers Bureau. 2012.
  13. Huff, Richard (January 7, 2000). "Catherine Crier lands on Court". New York Daily News.
  14. Becker, Anne (April 10, 2007). "Court TV Cancels Crier". Broadcasting & Cable.
  15. Starr, Michael (April 11, 2007). "Starr Report: 'Cat ' out of a bag". New York Post.
  16. Archived 2013-04-11 at archive.today