Parents’ efforts to suppress Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale’s manifesto would be unprecedented if granted: expert
The efforts of parents and Nashville community members to stop the release of Covenant School shooter Audrey Hale’s writings, if successful, would be🔯 an unprecedented move that could have bigger implications going forward, an open-government expert told The Post.
Tennessee’s victims’ rights statute does not give individuals a “carte blanche” to veto other laws, such as the one that allows people the right to public records, said Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government.
“There’s nothing really to indicate that there would be this ability for victims to veto the release of otherwise public records and in, and in this case, crime records,” Fisher said Thursday.
Fisher is not a party in the ongoing litigation over whether Hale’s writings — previously described as a “manifesto” — should be released.
🌺But she was asked by an attorney involved to provide her input on the history of the victims’ rights legislation, she said.
“In this case, the perpetrator is dead,” she went on, “but if the shooter had gone to trial, most likely the writings of the shooter would be part of the evidence in tꩲhe case about motivation.”
“I don’t think that in that situation, the victims could veto those being submitted in a public trial, and I don’t think that they can veto them being released as crime evidence in a case that doesn’t go to trial because the person is dead,” added Fisher, who is also director of the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies at Middle Tennessee State University.
Victims do have legally d🏅efined rights as it pertains to criminal pro🔯ceedings, their exposure to an alleged perpetrator and privacy related to sexual assault and victims’ personal information.
“There are a lot of reasons not to think that there was ever any intention that there’d be an unspecified kind of veto right of victims to prevent the release of public records.”
Fisher noted TCOG is i🌞nterested in the outcome of the litigation because of its p💟otential for bigger implications.
“If the courts do conclude that victims have a veto over the release of crime records, that would create a whole new equation in🔜 Tennessee about what the public gets to know about crime or even possibly criminal trials.”
Hale’s parents last month transferred ownership of her “manifesto” to the families of Covenant School students who are battling to stop them from 🗹bein🌠g released.
The move effectively means the parents reeling from the 28-year-old shooter’s rampage, which killed six, are now working with the killer’s family 🍌to stop her voluminous writings from being made public.
Hale, who was transgender, blast🦩ed into the private elementary school on the morning of March 27 and carried out the killing spree before Metro Nas♔hville police shot her down.
Students Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney, all 9, were killed, as well as school janitor Mike Hill, 61, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and headmistress Katherine Koonce, 60, who reportedly ran toward the shooter to try to protect the kids.
Hale had 🍸written diaries, journals and drawings, which Freedom of Information advocates are seeking to make public, but the school is fiercely opposed to.
Several politicians, a newspaper and gun-rights groups are seeking the release of Hale’s writings, arguing any potential changes to firearm regulations based on the shooting would not be fair without𝓀 knowing more about Hale’s motives and mental state.
G🍌ov. Bill Lee had cited the Covenant School shooting when urging new gun-control legislation, which would include background checks on mental health.
Under the proposed law, people deemed risks t🔯o others or themselves would have their 🍬firearms taken for up to 180 days.
Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles ruled in May that 100 of Covenant School’s 112 families had a right to intervene in the litigation, and said she would consider arguments from the families’ 🐎camp. The Covenant School and Covenant Presbyterian Church have also been allowed to weigh in.
The gr🧜oups seeking access to the documents have since appealed Myles’ decision and asked the judge to suspend proceedings pending the appeals process.
However, the Metro Nashville Police Department remains in control of the manifesto, regardlesꦆs of who technically owns the file. And p🥀olice have said Hale’s writings are part of an ongoing investigation, which could take another several months.
