It appears that some people agree with my contention that those who contribute to a crime by influencing others are at least partially responsible.

The family of a woman who committed suicide after appearing on Nancy Grace's CNN talk show to discuss her missing son says she may have been influenced by Grace's harsh interrogation as to her whereabouts on the day her son disappeared. I'm inclined to agree.

For those who do not know, Nancy Grace is a know-it-all talk show hostess who was formerly a prosecutor. She abhors the idea of "innocent until proven guilty" and looks exactly like someone's holding a small turd beneath her nose at all times. She's been particularly picked on by TV shows lately, and apparently this is what sparked it.

I've personally seen Grace and her show and she can be very, very ugly. Aside from the fact that she is physically unattractive, I mean that her behavior is rude, aggressive, and often verges on the psychotic. Further, Nancy Grace is a confirmed liar whose entire professional reputation was exposed as being fraudulent by a New York reporter several months back.

According to Grace, she became a prosecutor after she and her fiance were attacked and he was murdered. The truth is far from that. In fact, the only truth to Grace's accounts of that event is that she was engaged to the victim; everything else is a complete fabrication.

Do I think Nancy Grace caused the woman to kill herself? I absolutely think she should bear some responsibility. The woman was in a very fragile state, was lured onto Grace's show under false pretenses, and was then verbally attacked and abused by the hostess. It was a case of undue stress that could have been overlooked, were it not for the way she was lured into the entire thing.

To my eyes, people who are in emotionally and/or psychologically shaky positions should be handled differently from the way others are handled, period. And failure to do so is irresponsible and cruel, but not criminal. Exerting undue influence -- in any fashion -- on such people should be punishable as a criminal action. And while that may open up the floor for every Tom, Dick, and Harry to use this as a defense, cases such as this one are pretty cut-and-dried.