SANDY HOOK SHOOTER’S WRITINGS ORDERED RELEASED
Hartford — The Connecticut Supreme Court says state police must release disturbing writings and other belongings of the Newtown school shooter to the public because they are not exempt from state open record laws.
The court ruled 5-0 Tuesday in favor of The Hartford Courant and state Freedom of Information Commission, whose order to police to release shooter Adam Lanza’s belongings was overturned by a lower court judge. It wasn’t immediately clear when the items will be released.
State police had seized Lanza’s belongings from his Newtown home and rejected the Courant’s request to view the items, which included a spreadsheet ranking mass murders and violent stories he wrote.
Hartford — Some of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter’s personal belongings, including personal journals containing stories about hurting children and a spreadsheet ranking mass murders, must be released to the public because they are not exempt from open record laws, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
Thousands of documents already have been released from the investigation that ended without determining a motive for the massacre of 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012, but the writings could provide insights into the thinking of the shooter, Adam Lanza.
The Hartford Courant and other media organizations requested to view Lanza’s belongings, which were seized by authorities during a search of Lanza’s home and described in a state police report released about a year after the shooting. State police rejected the requests, citing privacy rights in the state’s search and seizure law.
The Courant appealed to the state Freedom of Information Commission, which in 2015 ordered state police to release the documents. But Superior Court Judge Carl Schuman overruled the commission in 2016 — a decision overturned Tuesday in the 5-0 Supreme Court ruling.
“We feel these documents are necessary to tell a complete story in our reporting,” said Andrew Julien, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Courant. “Understanding what a mass killer was thinking not only paints a clearer picture of the individual, it helps us identify and understand red flags that could be part of a prevention formula for future mass shootings.”
It’s not immediately clear when the 35 requested items will be released. The state attorney general’s office, which represents state police and declined to comment Tuesday, could ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling or possibly appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. State police officials did not return messages seeking comment.
Among the disputed documents are a spreadsheet ranking mass murders by name and number killed and a notebook titled “The Big Book of Granny.” The notebook contains a story that Lanza wrote in the fifth grade about a woman who uses her “rifle cane” to kill people.