The DecaturDaily
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THURSDAY
MARCH 13, 2008
T H E I N D E P E N D E N T V O I C E O F T H E T E N N E S S E E VA L L E Y S I N C E 1 9 1 2
WWW.DECATURDAILY.COM
‘As many times as it takes’
Moore back in jail after 2nd trial ends hung; state prosecutor promises 3rd; jurors split 8-4 in favor of acquittal
By Sheryl Marsh
smarsh@decaturdaily.com
340-2437
A state prosecutor gave Daniel
Wade Moore no hope of freedom after a judge declared a mistrial and
returned him to jail Wednesday to
await a third trial.
“We’ll be back to try Daniel Wade
Moore as many times as it takes to
get a guilty verdict for his murder of
Karen Tipton,” said Don Valeska,
the state chief assistant attorney
general.
Valeska’s
promise of a third
trial came after
Morgan County
Circuit Judge Steve
Haddock declared a
mistrial in Moore’s
capital murder case
Wednesday.
Moore
Until there is another trial, Moore, 34, will remain in
the county jail.
Haddock ruled after a jury of five
women and seven men told him for
the third time that they could not
reach a verdict.
One of the jurors, Scott Burns,
said in a phone interview that jurors were split with eight wanting
acquittal. Burns said DNA evidence
and a statement Moore made to his
uncle about being in the home during the murder were insufficient for
a conviction.
A female juror, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said she was
one of the eight for acquittal and
she was ready to vote when jurors
started deliberations. She said it
was contentious in the jury room,
because the four jurors for conviction were drilling the others about
DNA evidence.
The juror said she believed a
woman killed Tipton, although that
was not a part of the testimony.
Valeska said he appreciated the
jury’s service, but he believed the
evidence was strong.
“The evidence was overwhelming
with two types of DNA that Morgan
County District Attorney Bob Burrell ordered,” Valeska said.
Please see Moore, page A4
‘The evidence
was overwhelming with two
types of DNA that
Morgan County
District Attorney Bob
Burrell ordered. One
in 7.5 million and 99.8 percent
are overwhelming statistics.’
Don Valeska
State chief assistant attorney general
Dealing with the dread ‘crippler’ Feds say
Morgan
air now
too dirty
Area MS victim
learning to cope,
plans to march
By Eric Fleischauer
eric@decaturdaily.com
340-2435
O
n her 30th birthday,
Kelli Brooks — recently diagnosed with
multiple sclerosis —
sat on her bedroom
floor, crying and hoping to die.
Less than two months later,
explaining her effort to cope,
she toys with the word “gift” to
describe her crippling disease.
The mother of two, a special
education teacher at DanvilleNeel Elementary School, received the diagnosis in November.
Brooks struggles to walk 10
yards. She will walk a mile Saturday in the MS Walk at Heritage Park in Cullman.
EPA toughens requirements;
county among 345 violators
From staff, AP reports
Morgan County is among 345 U.S. counties that
will now be in violation of clean-air requirements
set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
With a three-year average of 76 units of ozone,
or smog, for every billion units of air, Morgan
County is slightly too dirty for the new EPA limit
of 75 parts per billion announced Wednesday.
Other Alabama counties that exceed the new
standard are Madison, Baldwin, Jefferson, Mobile
and Shelby.
The new standard could create expensive obstacles for industrial growth and major highway
projects in Decatur, according to government and
economic development officials who spoke with
The Daily in September after the EPA proposed to
lower the standard.
The federal action, which lowers ozone limits
for the atmosphere from the previous allowance
of 80 parts per billion, means that about four
times as many counties will be in violation of the
health requirement as under the old rules.
However, scientists said the change still isn’t
enough to significantly reduce heart and asthma
The disease
MS is an incurable disease of
the central nervous system.
While it is little understood, researchers believe the body’s
immune system attacks a fatty
sheath that protects the nerve
fibers of the brain, optical
nerves and spinal cord. The resulting scarring, or sclerosis,
disrupts nerve impulses.
Often disabling, the disease
causes symptoms that vary
with the individual. They can
include loss of vision, numbness in the limbs, paralysis,
sensitivity to heat, speech defects, balance problems and severe fatigue.
As Brooks tries to cope with
the enormity of the disease,
she is not speaking of the word
gift conventionally. This gift is
like death to Lazarus, the thorn
to Paul, the Gethsemane cup to
Please see MS, page A4
Please see Air, page A4
Daily photo by Jonathan Palmer
Kelli Brooks in her special education class at Danville-Neel School with her daughter, Hannah. Brooks was
diagnosed in November with multiple sclerosis, an incurable illness of the central nervous system. With the
help of doctors, family, friends and faith, she is coping with a disease once widely known as “the crippler of
young adults.”
Panel OKs exempting
federal rebates from
Alabama income tax
By Bob Johnson
Hartselle tax supporters say need for new school remains
By Deangelo McDaniel
dmcdaniel@decaturdaily.com
340-2469
HARTSELLE — So close, yet so
far away.
That’s how supporters said they
felt following Tuesday’s defeat of a
7.5-mill property tax increase to
construct a new Hartselle High
School.
With fewer than half of the city’s
8,426 registered voters going to the
polls, the proposed tax failed by 231
votes.
“We just can’t give up,” Superintendent William Michael Reed said.
“The problem at the high school is
still with us.”
Tuesday’s vote for new school taxes was closer than two previous
elections.
In 1990, electors defeated an 8-mill
referendum to help construct
Barkley Bridge Elementary by 388
votes.
In 2004, a 7.5-mill tax that would
have been split between the city and
school system failed by 991 votes.
So what went wrong Tuesday?
“Through no fault of anybody, we
failed to communicate to people
how important the new high school
is to our community,” Mayor
AREA DEATHS
Talmadge Barnes, Trinity
Ruthie M. Brown, Decatur
Thurman King, Town Creek
Willard Maples, Somerville
Susan Martin, Athens
Victoria Morris, Hartselle
Carlton Scott, Decatur
Christeen Thomas, Texas
Death notices, obituaries, B5.
‘We’re out of
space, and that’s
a problem that didn’t
go away on Tuesday.’
Dwight Tankersley
Hartselle mayor
Dwight Tankersley said.
Tankersley said voters apparently didn’t realize that their vote was
about more than a new high school.
“It was about the entire system
and the entire city,” he said. “If
we’re going to grow economically,
High: 74 Low: 49
TODAY’S WEATHER, A2
INSIDE
Abby................D2
Area briefs ....B5
Bridge .............D5
Calendar .......D2
Mostly cloudy with southwest winds
5 to 10 mph. A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after midnight. Mostly cloudy Friday and Saturday with a chance of rain.
Classified ......C5
Comics ...........D4
Crossword.....D5
Editorials ......A7
Happenings..D6
Horoscope ....D5
Living ..............D1
Lotteries.........B5
Movies............D3
Obituaries ....B5
Riverfront ......B1
Sports .............C1
Stocks.............A6
Television ......D3
Weather.........A2
Decatur, Alabama 97th year, No. 17, 68 pages
Associated Press Writer
we have to grow as a city.”
City growth, however, means
more children in the school system,
Tankersley said.
“We’re out of space, and that’s a
problem that didn’t go away on
Tuesday,” he said.
So what’s next?
Reed has said the school board
will not give up the project. He said
it will regroup and outline another
plan.
Any plan will have to consider
funding. And this is where the
council has to play a role.
MONTGOMERY — A House committee voted
Wednesday to exempt federal tax rebates from Alabama income taxes, but not to give an additional tax break to businesses.
The House Education Appropriations Committee approved on a voice vote a bill that exempts
the tax rebates from state taxes. But the bill was
amended to remove an incentive for businesses
that’s offered in the federal tax rebate package.
The federal package allows businesses to increase the amount that they deduct for the depreciating value of equipment. State law ties Alabama’s depreciation schedule for businesses to the
federal schedule, which means Alabama’s schedule would go up automatically under the federal
legislation. But the House committee voted to allow businesses to take only the current deduction.
Please see Hartselle, page A4
Please see Rebates, page A4
NATION
POLITICS
35-year-old
Kansas
woman was
stuck on
boyfriend’s
toilet for 2
years? A2
Call-girl
king killer
Newspaper identifies
woman at center of prostitution scandal that
forced New York’s governor to resign. A2