Deliberations on whether courts should release writings by the Covenant School shooter are expected to begin in a Nashville court on Tuesday - with the opinions of the victims' families diverging sharply from those of public officials.
The so-called manifesto - which is actually a collection of journals, a memoir and a suicide note - has become subject to wide spread conspiracy theories since the Covenent School shooting unfolded, a little over a year ago.
The shooter, Aiden Hale, shot and killed three adults and three elementary school children at his former elementary school on March 27, 2023. Hale, 28, was subsequently killed by two Metropolitan Nashville Police Department Officers.
Following the shooting, Nashville law enforcement discussed Hale's writings - which they initially described as a manifesto - but did not release the documents to the public. The writings became subject to intense scrutiny because of Hale's identity as a transgender man. Some theorists believe that Hale chose to target his religious alma mater as a hate crime against Christians.
Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, the National Police Association and conservative media figures have called for making the documents publicly accessible. Many of the victims' family members, however, are opposed to releasing the writings.
"I do not believe there was any motivation other than a desire for death, and there is nothing that could ever make the horrible act of killing children make sense," Erin Kinney, the mother of one of the victims, wrote in a court filing.
"The public release of these writings will not prevent the next attack. There is nothing in the journals to satisfy the yearning, overactive minds of the conspiracy theorists."
The victims' families were also able to gain ownership over Hale's writing and are threatening to take legal action against anyone who releases them, regardless of the court's decision, WKRN reported.
Some mass shooting experts have argued that releasing the documents, thereby giving Hale more notoriety, could influence other shooters.
"I don't think a manifesto in isolation is likely to inspire an attack if you can't see who that person is and start to identify with them," criminologist Adam Lankford told the Associated Press in 2023. "But if you're already obsessed with that individual, then, you know, that obsession can extend to obsessing about that person's words."
