The Tennessee Court of Appeals on Wednesday granted a major victory to The Tennessee Star in the lawsuit to obtain the writings left by the Covenant School killer, reversing much of the trial court’s July 4, 2024, ruling, and paving the way for the eventual release of redacted versions of the killer’s writings, as well as files from the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigation.
In an opinion released nearly three years after Audrey Elizabeth Hale killed six at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023, the panel of judges determined Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles incorrectly determined the killer’s writings could not be released due to copyright and school safety exemptions.
First, the panel ruled that the trial court must instruct Nashville to release any documents blocked from release because Myles issued her decision while detectives were still investigating. Next, it instructed Myles to oversee the process to redact and release the remaining documents.
The appellate court ruled, “the trial court shall determine which of the shooter’s writings and other works are exempt from disclosure,” due to Tennessee’s law protecting confidential school information, but explicitly stated, “No record in Metro’s file should be deemed exempt “simply because it contains some exempt information.”
The opinion also instructed the trial court, “The entire process should be concluded as expeditiously as possible,” explaining, “Because almost three years has passed since the first request for this information, we encourage the trial court to impose upon [Metro] an expedited schedule for completion of its review,” of the killer’s writings.
Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Star, and Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), which owns and operates The Star, filed their lawsuit on May 10, 2023. Leahy and SNDM are represented by attorney Nicholas Barry at the America First Legal Foundation in the Tennessee lawsuit.
Leahy described the ruling as a victory before calling for a rapid review and release of the records in a Wednesday statement.
“This unanimous ruling by the Tennessee Court of Appeals is a major victory for freedom of the press, the people of the State of Tennessee, and The Tennessee Star,” said Leahy. “It is in the public interest for all of these documents to be released to us expeditiously, as the Court of Appeals ruled.”
He added, “The story of what happened cannot be completely told until we can make these documents public, and my guess is those currently hidden documents will contain several significant revelations about both what happened on that terrible day, and how well, or poorly, Metro Nashville Police Department handled the investigation.”
“It should never have taken three years for a court to confirm what was obvious from day one: these records are public,” Barry told The Star. “Tennesseans have a right to know what happened and why. Hiding public records for political ends is anti-democratic. Metro should immediately release the documents my client has requested.”
The Tennessee Firearms Association (TFA), one of the other plaintiffs suing to obtain the killer’s writings, noted that the appellate court specifically “expressed its frustration” with Myles’ determination that the killer’s voluminous writings, which filled over 10 notebooks and were written over a decade or more, should all be blocked from release due to school safety concerns.
“Against this backdrop, we are asked to accept at face value the trial court’s finding that every single item compiled or created by the shooter, for many years before the event at issue, relates to the Covenant School’s security,” wrote the judges. “This conclusion strains credulity, and we are neither willing nor able to make the blind logical leap the Covenant Intervenors ask of us.”
The panel also appeared to suggest the Covenant parents successfully prompted Myles to issue a ruling to achieve goals that should have been achieved through legislation.
“To the extent a school-shooter manifesto exception to the TPRA is warranted, that decision is more appropriately left to the General Assembly or our Supreme Court,” according to the opinion.
While the appellate court found Myles’ blanket ruling incorrect, it also determined that most of the killer’s writings are public records and therefore subject to release under Tennessee’s open records laws.
The panel preserved only two parts of Myles ruling. Despite finding the copyright claim insufficient to prevent the redacted release of the killer’s writings, they preserved her decision to allow the Covenant Children’s Trust to intervene in the lawsuit to assert its claim. It also preserved Myles’ determination that the Tennessee Victims’ Bill of Rights did not justify blocking the release.
Myles is now set to preside over the redaction and release process, which will likely begin with MNPD’s proposed redactions to the documents.
In 2024, The Star lawfully obtained and published the killer’s unredacted 2023 manifesto, which law enforcement originally recovered from the vehicle she drove to the Covenant School. Within those writings, the killer described her violent fantasies about the school, her identity as a transgender man, and her romantic obsession with former basketball teammates from the middle school she attended more than a decade earlier.
Since then, the FBI has released redacted versions of Hale’s writings after settling various Biden-era lawsuits, including the federal litigation by Leahy and SNDM.
The most recent FBI release of the killer’s writings included a journal entry where Hale listed “hate religion” and “white [people] I hate” as reasons to attack the Covenant School.
Last year, The Star’s reporting on the Covenant case was nominated for a Dao Prize for Best Local Journalism.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Editor’s note: This report was updated to include comments by attorney Nicholas Barry.
