While we usually focus on Shoals and Northwest Alabama politics, we're going to stray slightly to the southeast today, more specifically to Blount County. It's not every day that we meet someone like Pamela L. Casey and we want our readers to get to know her as well.
Pam's home town is Snead, Alabama, a small town in Blount County that is roughly the size of Killen. After graduation from high school, Pam attended Rhodes College in Memphis and earned her juris doctorate from the Seattle School of Law in Washington state. Currently, Pam is a member of the bar in both Washington and Alabama.
After serving an internship in Washington, Pam returned to Alabama where she began work as an Assistant Attorney General. Some in the Shoals area will remember Pam as part of the team that prosecuted Daniel Wade Moore for the murder of Karen Tipton in Decatur. Now Pam is again in our corner of the state, this time leading the prosecution team in the Keith McGuire rape case.
Pam has told us that the law is her passion, and that fervor shows in her dedication to her work. A member of the Republican Party, she is about to launch her campaign for District Attorney of Blount County. Remember her name; Blount County needs someone like Pam Casey, but we have a feeling Montgomery will be calling as well.
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Henry Floyd Sherrod III, better known as Hank, is a Florence attorney specializing in civil rights cases and he's about to take on the Decatur Police Department. Like we said, he's got game.
A 1982 graduate of Tuscumbia's Deshler High School, Sherrod graduated from Birmingham Southern in 1986 and received his juris doctorate from Vanderbilt in 1989. Since 1990, he has practiced law in Florence. Sherrod describes himself as "a small town civil rights lawyer, runner, paddler, and non-conformist."
A member of the Alabama ACLU Board of Directors, Sherrod has previously taken on some interesting cases. He once represented Tony Lee Smith in his bid to practice Odinism while incarcerated in the Alabama Prison System. More recently, he won a well-deserved victory over Lauderdale County as attorney for Kevin Danley. As a result of that win, the Florence-Lauderdale Detention Center has revised its pepper spray policy. In other words, Sherrod gets results.
Now Sherrod is representing Daniel Wade Moore in a civil suit against the Decatur Police Department. Moore, accused of murdering Karen Tipton, has just been found not guilty after his third trial. The lawsuit involves Moore's initial trial, in which the judge declared a mistrial. At that time prosecutors received immunity from any charges of misconduct, but that immunity did not extend to the police, now charged with withholding and destroying evidence in the case.
Did Moore murder Tipton and escape with only the loss of a few years of his freedom and an extremely tarnished reputation? If so, that point is unfortunately moot. Did the Decatur Police conspire against Moore? The trial is set for November 20th; perhaps we'll have the answer then.
In the interim, kudos to Hank Sherrod for his work in the civil rights arena. If he isn't careful, he might give lawyers a good name.
Note: For more info on Cherokee librarian Paige McWilliams, check out WAFF's website.
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