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.

  • beetlejuice0001
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    5 months ago

    With the recent rulings by judges (especially in conservative states) I have no faith in judicial review.

    • Tom_Hanx_Hail_Satan@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      That’s apples and oranges. This shooter has the potential to be the Trans version of Elliot Rodgers. Trying to attach a christo-facist motivation to this ruling is a stretch and a half.

      The motivations of mass killers isn’t really relevant for anything. People capable of that level of violence are such an anomaly that other indicators are more important, from a psychological perspective, than their self-determined motives.

      Largest mass killer in us history was the Vegas shooter, Stephen Paddock. His motivation was that he was feeling slighted by the casinos for not getting enough perks for being a “big spender”. What is a psychologist supposed to do with that for helping prevent other mass shooters? Trying to attach some silence of the lambs bullshit to crimes like this is foolish. Even then, that’s the FBI doing it which then can be trickled out to medical journals etc. The best thing for the public is for these killer to be remembered as dead monsters.

      • beetlejuice0001
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        5 months ago

        motivation to this ruling is a stretch and a half

        You’re presuming again, everything you said

        • Tom_Hanx_Hail_Satan@lemmy.ca
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          5 months ago

          Presuming how? My main point is that the shooters motivations is mostly irrelevant and releasing their writings dould encourage copycats. Like we actually saw with Elliot Rodgers.

          What am I presuming?

          • beetlejuice0001
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            5 months ago

            You’re presuming they’re a monster who did it for no reason. As they say, one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. Again, speculation. You’re advocating for the Christo-Fascist withholding information

            Edit: you could be right, you could be very wrong and this person may have been a victim themselves.

            • MisplacedAstronaut@lemmy.world
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              5 months ago

              Whenever it’s a white, straight, male, shooter, (which is the majority of shooters in cases like this) all of their manifestos and videos get posted online and then the media goes around like clockwork to victimize the criminal. Especially if it turns out the while straight male shooter is also in a Christian family.

              But in the extremely rare case that a person of the lgbtq community is a shooter, it becomes glaringly obvious that they were bullied and the systems in place failed them over and over again. “But we better not… for the victims families sake.”

              It’s always about victimizing the straights and the religious and making the lgbtq the issue at every turn. Just like how, all of a sudden, conservatives are exclaiming how worried they are about children being around the LGBT but they are a-okay with all the child-abusing priests or their child raping president and the Christian families that basically send their children to torture camps if they so much as breathe a rainbow.

              • Tom_Hanx_Hail_Satan@lemmy.ca
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                5 months ago

                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.

            • Tom_Hanx_Hail_Satan@lemmy.ca
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              5 months ago

              That’s not a presumption though, or even speculation. Was the shooter bullied by kids they killed? No, again, that’s speculation though. Even if they were bullied, it’s misplaced anger and an inability to cope with their own issues. Releasing the manifesto would validate their martyrdom.

              Assuming this ruling has anything to do with a christo-facist agenda is the most egregious and, likely, wrong presumption anyone is making. If I’m defending the christo-facist you are defending the motives of a, literal, mass murder of children.

                • Tom_Hanx_Hail_Satan@lemmy.ca
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                  5 months ago

                  Low energy. I was saying you were assuming this ruling had something to do with a christo-facist agenda, numbnuts

                  • beetlejuice0001
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                    5 months ago

                    You’ve been defending this judge and the withholding of evidence while demonizing a child for hours now, low energy lol whatever. This child could’ve been raped for years by the Christian school administrators. That’s why the journals should be released. You’re all in on defending the Christo-Fascists while trying to depict me in a bad light. Clutch you pearls somewhere else.