On March 27, 2023, Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale stormed into the Covenant School, killing six people before she was killed by police officers. The shooter was found to have written in her journal that she hoped to make the Columbine shooters proud when she executed her massacre. The details of her planning and suicidal thoughts were documented in the journal, which has become a central element in a highly contentious legal battle between the Tennessee Star publisher and the families of the victims.
Hale’s journal contained largely incoherent ramblings, doodles, and self-loathing descriptions alongside plans to shoot up the private school. Her final entry on the day of the massacre was labeled “Death Day” next to a drawing of a gun. The local newspaper, The Star, obtained the journal entries from a source familiar with the investigation into Hale in June 2024 and has argued that it has a First Amendment right to publish its findings. However, the parents of the three children killed by Hale have begged a judge to bar outlets from publishing the killer’s writings.
The families’ lawyers have argued that they own the copyright to the writings since Hale’s parents turned over the estate to the victims’ families after the shooting. Free speech advocates and media outlets like The Star have also sued law enforcement agencies to release all of Hale’s writings, arguing that the public has a right to know what motivated the senseless killings. The entries published on Tuesday were from just one of 20 journals Hale kept alongside a suicide note and an unpublished memoir.
