SEE SAYS MOORE EASY ON DRUG DEALERS

MONTGOMERY - Justice Harold See took off the kid gloves Thursday in his
fight for the Republican nomination for chief justice, accusing Etowah
County Circuit Judge Roy Moore of being soft on crime.

New radio and TV spots sponsored by the See campaign said "Moore let
convicted drug dealers off with reduced sentences or probation - at least 40
times."

In the TV version, as the announcer spoke, a list of the case numbers from
Moore's court scrolled across the screen.

Asked to back up See's claims about Moore's handling of drug cases, campaign
spokeswoman Kelly McCullough provided summaries of 41 cases from Moore's
court.

Phillip Jauregui, Moore's campaign manager, hadn't heard See's radio and TV
spots but when told of their content called them "a sad, desperate move by a
campaign that is losing. And they are losing.

"One minute Harold See is praising Moore as the Ten Commandments judge and
praying with him on the Capitol steps on the National Day of Prayer, and the
next minute he is attacking him," Jauregui said.

In one court case cited by the See campaign, Joann Miller Black was
convicted of trafficking in cocaine and was sentenced by another judge to 10
years in prison and five years on probation.

According to the summary, she was released after one year, then violated
probation. Her probation officer asked Moore, who had taken over supervision
of her case, to revoke her probation.

"Judge Moore denied this request and extended Black's probation and changed
it to unsupervised probation," See's campaign summary stated.

Moore later waived a fine that the previous judge had imposed and ordered
the woman to perform community service instead, and when she refused to
perform community service Moore again did not revoke her probation, the
summary stated.

Moore's staff, provided a copy of the case summary late Thursday, had no
immediate comment.

See's ads also touted See's "proven record of making criminals pay for their
crimes and fighting against technicalities that would let criminals off."

Ms. McCullough cited specific cases from the Supreme Court. In one, five
justices overturned the capital murder conviction of Nathaniel Scroggins
because the district attorney offered written testimony from a witness
instead of live testimony. See and three other justices dissented.

See wrote that the majority's ruling was "a dramatic departure" from what
the U.S. Supreme Court says the Constitution requires in such cases.

News staff writer Rose Livingston contributed to this story.