Heath HS Principal Spikes Student Paper, says 'sensitive' issues could pose problems

This from the Daily Journal:

A western Kentucky high school administrator spiked the 2011 senior edition of the student newspaper, saying it was an effort to prevent a disturbance and the paper's production was unsupervised.

Heath High School Principal Jon Reid said he confiscated 600 copies of the Heath Post on May 20 because there were "sensitive issues" included in the edition and distribution to students was potentially damaging. Reid had the papers seized no more than 20 minutes after distribution.

"There should have been an adult to look over it," Reid said.

Seniors Chelsea Harris, Sarah Quarles and Lexy Gross produced the edition over two months. Quarles told The Paducah Sun that the confiscation was "offensive." 

"I cared because I put so much work into it. It wasn't right at all," Harris added.

Adam Goldstein, attorney advocate for the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va., agrees the action was not only unfair, but said it was illegal.

Constitutional free speech laws give students the right to publish anything they want as long as it does not create a physical disturbance that would hinder the school's instructional environment, such as a protest, walkout or bomb threat, Goldstein said.

"The real simple principle here, that I think the school should take to heart, is if you have to ask if it's a disruption, it's a not a disruption," he said. "Orderly complaints aren't going to cause a problem. The idea that something that can be disruptive in a way that nobody but the principal notices is laughable. It doesn't even approach what the legal standard is." ...

So, he was crazy when he shot those folks, but he feels better now and would like to get out of jail.

This from the Paducah Sun (subscription)

Carneal receives February hearing

A hearing that could last 10 days will be held in February to determine if Michael Carneal’s mental illness prevented him from appealing his guilty plea to the Dec. 1, 1997, murders of four Heath High School students.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Russell on Friday set the Feb. 7 hearing during a conference call with Carneal’s public defender and a representative of the state attorney general’s office...

Supreme Court tells Carneal, "No"

This from C-J:

Court rejects claims from Paducah school shooter

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- The Kentucky Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a new competency hearing and trial for a man who pleaded guilty to killing three peers
in a 1997 school shooting when he was a teenager.

The court ruled that Michael Carneal's guilty plea should not be reconsidered after his current claim that his mental illness was worse than anyone realized at the time of the shootings. The high court also rejected Carneal's claims that his lawyer was
ineffective.

Carneal, now 25, is serving a sentence of life without the chance of parole for at least 25 years for the Dec. 1, 1997, shooting at Heath High School in Paducah when he was 14. The case was one of seven school shootings in the late-1990s, including the Columbine High School massacre in April 1999.

The ruling means Carneal will likely remain in prison until his first parole eligibility in 2023...

State Supreme Court hears Michael Carneal's motion for a new trial

This from WAVE3 TV:

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Eleven years ago he opened fire at Heath High School in Paducah, killing three classmates and wounding five others. Thursday, the Kentucky Supreme Court heard arguments in the Michael Carneal case. He wants a new trial, saying he was insane at the time of the shooting and should not have been able to enter a guilty plea. WAVE 3's Carrie Weil was in the courtroom at the Brandeis School of Law on the University of Louisville's Belknap Campus.

WAVE3 TV Video:

Carneal sits in prison serving a life sentence. It is the revelations he made in prison that landed his case in front of a packed courtroom.

"He has never until recently, 2004, spoke about the danes, spoke about the angel named Goose that came down while he was sleeping in his living room," said David Harshaw, Carneal's attorney. "He had never spoken about that command hallucinations at the time caused him to do what he did,"

Two doctors found Carneal mentally ill in 1998, but competent to enter a guilty plea. Since filing those mental competency reports, and with the new evidence and more examination, they have changed their minds....

Heath High School shooter now says he was too mentally ill to plead guilty

This from the Herald-Leader:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. --A high school shooter who killed three classmates and wounded five others is asking Kentucky's Supreme Court for another chance.

Michael Carneal, now 25, claims he was too mentally ill to plead guilty in 1998 to going into Heath High School in west Paducah and shooting eight students gathered for an informal prayer service. He is serving a sentence of life without the chance of parole for at least 25 years for the shooting Dec. 1, 1997, when he was 14.

Carneal's case is back in the spotlight because the Kentucky Court of Appeals last year sent it back to McCracken County Circuit Court to decide if he should be granted a new hearing. The ruling said if Carneal is determined to have been incompetent when he pleaded guilty, he should be allowed to enter another plea or go to trial.

Prosecutors appealed, setting up the Kentucky Supreme Court's hearing on Sept. 11. The Supreme Court will decide whether Carneal should get a new competency hearing and trial.

Five psychologists examined Carneal before his 1998 guilty plea and determined that he was competent and understood the consequences, according to court records. Three were hired by Carneal's attorneys...