Five months after seizing the writings of Nashville, Tennessee, Christian school shooter Audrey Hale, authorities continue to withhold the alleged manifesto, raising both legal and free speech issues centering on the public’s right to information.
“It looks like a violation of law and it is problematic on many levels, including some important First Amendment concerns,” Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, told the Epoch Times.
In the shooting, Ms. Hale, a female-to-male transgender who chose to identify as a man, killed three 9-year-old children and three adults who worked at the Covenant School on the morning of March 27. Officers shot and killed Hale, a former student at the school, minutes after Covenant officials called 911.
In the subsequent search of Ms. Hale’s vehicle and home the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) claim to have discovered voluminous writings, including diaries and drawings. In a statement, the MNPD said that Hale “documented, in journals, her planning over a period of months to commit mass murder at The Covenant School.”
Ms. Hale had inferred in an Instagram message to a friend just before the shooting that she had left the material intentionally to reveal her motive in the killings, writing, “One day this will make more sense. I’ve left more than enough evidence behind.”
Police seized the materials, which included seven journals found under her bed, eleven home videos discovered under the family’s basement stairs, along with two more journals and a suicide note left in her desk, according to a search warrant released by the MNPD.
In past mass shootings where the perpetrator has been caught or killed, the government has typically released writings and related evidence within two or three days of the incident. However, contents of the seized Nashville shooter’s writings have not been released to the public, even in redacted form.
Authorities appear to be withholding the documents by attempting to establish a new precedent as to what constitutes an active investigation, according to a legal expert.
“The city is making the case that they have the right to withhold the information by claiming that it is part of an ongoing investigation, while at the same time telling the public no one else is involved, the shooter acted alone, and they have no plans of charging anyone else related to the crime,” said Ms. Fisher.
“None of it makes sense.”
The Tennessee Public Records Act, passed in 1957, was legislation intended to be a guarantee that the people had access to public records of government bodies at all levels in Tennessee in a “timely manner,” according to the Municipal Technical Advisory Service Institute for Public Service.
In the weeks following the tragedy, officials assured the media that the writings would be handed over, with law enforcement appearing to acknowledge an obligation to turn over evidence related to the case. In April the MNPD told the Epoch Times that they were “in the process of going through the writings” and “that they can and will be released publicly.”
However, in May MNPD officials appeared to reverse course after parents and Nashville community members protested allowing the public to gain access to the documents, citing the Tennessee Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights and the Tennessee Constitution which provides “the right to be free from harassment, intimidation, and abuse throughout the criminal justice system.” The MNPD subsequently made the legal argument that it is within their rights to withhold the shooter’s writings, claiming that the investigation was still ongoing.
In the ensuing months, conspiracies swirled over the contents of the writings while demands for transparency grew louder among both the media and public officials.
On Aug. 2, GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called for the release of the shooter’s writings while standing in front of Davidson County Courthouse in Nashville. Mr. Ramaswamy described the government position as “stonewalled silence” before telling reporters that he believed the shooter’s sexuality as a transgender played a role in the documents being kept out of public view.
“It still remains my feeling that if this had not been a transgender shooter, if this had been a shooter of any kind … we would have stuck to the long-standing practice in our country of being transparent within 48 hours,” he said.
“Regardless of what the actual facts are, we, the people deserve to at least know them to reckon with them.”
“I do believe they’re hiding this manifesto,” he added.
Earlier this year 66 members of the Tennessee House Republican Caucus signed a letter sent to MNPD Police Chief John Drake calling for “the release of the perpetrator’s writings as well as relevant medical records and toxicology reports.”
Neither the FBI or the MNPD have expressed any indication of a timeline when Ms. Hale’s manifesto will be made available to the public. The Epoch Times has made multiple requests for comment but has been told that the authorities who could speak on the subject were unavailable.
Further delays in releasing the writings will only serve to erode the First Amendment, along with the public trust, according to Ms. Fisher, who is also director of the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies at Middle Tennessee State University.
“If releasing the information was going to hurt an investigation or potential prosecution, no one wants that, but it is vital that a free press remain independent and able to independently look at these documents,” said Ms. Fisher.
“The more they keep confidential and the longer information is withheld, the more it appears that they are hiding something and in that vacuum people come up with all kinds of theories,” she added.
“This evidence can’t be held indefinitely. The truth is too important, whatever that truth may be.”
