The writings of the person who killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville last year cannot be released to the public, a judge ruled Thursday.
Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles found that The Covenant School children and parents hold the copyright to any writings or other works created by shooter Audrey Hale, a former student who was killed by police. As part of the effort to keep the records closed, Hale’s parents transferred ownership of Hale’s property to the victims’ families, who then argued in court that they should be allowed to determine who has access to them.
Myles agreed, ruling that “the original writings, journals, art, photos and videos created by Hale” are subject to an exception to the Tennessee Public Records Act created by the federal Copyright Act.
The shooter left behind at least 20 journals, a suicide note and a memoir, according to court filings. When the records requests were denied, several parties sued, and the situation quickly ballooned into a messy mix of conspiracy theories, leaked documents, probate battles and accusations of ethical misconduct. Myles’ order will almost surely be appealed.
There’s way to small of a sample size for non-white cis male shooters for you to justify that statement. What was Nicolas Cruzes motivation? Or James Holmes? Or charles Whittmans? They’re just violent psychopaths. Attaching a logical motivation to the acts of violent psychopaths is a fools errand, regardless of the identity.
Even the bullied trope comes from the Columbine shooters and they were not bullied, they were bullies. The saturation of media coverage led to presumptions of their motives. The public making those diagnoses is harmful and increases the celebrity of the killers which will motivate the next one.