All 90 pages of Nashville transgender shooter Audrey Hale was released by The Tennessee Star on Tuesday.
Contents from the manifesto of Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a biological female who identified as a transgender male at the time of her horrific attack on March 27, 2023, was leaked earlier this year.
Star News Digital Media, Inc., which owns and operates The Star, and the publication’s editor-in-chief, Michael Patrick Leahy, are currently plaintiffs in lawsuits seeking to compel the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the FBI to release Hale’s writings, including those referred to as a manifesto.
The Tennessee Star previously confirmed that it had obtained nearly four dozen pages of Hale’s writings from a source familiar with the investigation. The March 11, 2023 entry revealed her intense desire to possess a “penis.”
Hale’s diary entry begins with the title “My Imaginary Penis” and includes a crude drawing. “My penis exists in my head. I swear to god I’m a male,” wrote Hale in the diary. She then expressed her desire to have a penis for heterosexual intercourse, according to The Tennessee Star.
After threats of imprisonment, The Tennessee Star published all 90 pages of Audrey Hale’s manifesto.
Excerpts from Audrey Hale’s manifesto:
“If God won’t give me a boy body in heaven then Jesus is a f*ggot”
“I can’t be happy. I am meant to die”
“No brown girls, no love”
“Brown love is the most beautiful kind”
BREAKING: @TheTNStar Has Just Released All 90 Pages of The Nashville Manifesto Never Seen Before
“If God won’t give me a boy body in heaven then Jesus is a f*ggot”
“I can’t be happy. I am meant to die”
“No brown girls, no love”
“Brown love is the most beautiful kind” pic.twitter.com/4UaHEAvMCb
— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) September 3, 2024
The Tennessee Star legally obtained Audrey Hale’s manifesto/journal and defended their right to publish the contents.
“Our reporting on the Covenant Killer investigation has served the public interest,” Michael Patrick Leahy, the Editor-in-Chief of The Star, said on Tuesday.
“We legally obtained writings by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, MNPD investigation documents, and MNPD crime scene photos from a source familiar with the MNPD investigation in June 2024. These documents and photos have helped us inform the public about the underlying reasons for this heinous attack, and have helped drive the public discussion of what should be done to prevent such acts of violence in the future. We have documented a massive failure of the mental health system as a root cause of Hale’s reprehensible actions,” Leahy added.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Leahy said, “We have had a First Amendment right to publish these documents from the moment we legally obtained them in June 2024.”
We legally obtained this journal – which we refer to as The Covenant Killer’s 2023 Journal to distinguish it from the many journals written by Hale prior to 2023 – in early June of 2024 from a source familiar with the MNPD investigation. We believe it to be authentic. In addition to our belief, the journal was confirmed as authentic in court by a Metro Nashville Government lawyer in attendance at a June 2024 court hearing, and in a court filing submitted on June 14, 2024 by MNPD Lieutenant Alfredo Alevado. . .
On April 24, 2023, in compliance with the Tennessee Public Records Act, we formally requested of MNPD, a department within the Metro Nashville Davidson County Government, that they release all of the writings of Audrey Elizabeth Hale they had obtained as part of their investigation into the March 27, 2023 murders. Metro Nashville Government denied that request one day later on April 25, 2023, and in May 2023 we filed suit against Metro Nashville Government in Davidson County, Tennessee Chancery Court to obtain those writings, as provided for by the Tennessee Public Records Act. The case was assigned to Judge I’Ashea Myles. In this matter we are well represented by America First Legal and their outstanding local counsel, Nick Barry.
In May 2023, MNPD provided Judge Myles with all of Hale’s writings obtained through their investigation for her in-camera review. On July 4, 2024, Judge Myles released her decision in the case, which was to deny our request, on two grounds: (1) MNPD’s assertion that they were conducting an ongoing investigation into the murders was a statutory exception to the Tennessee Public Records Act which would have allowed our request and (2) The assertion of ownership of Hales’ writings and a subsequent copyright claim stemming from that purported ownership by an intervening group created a non-statutory exception to the Tennessee Public Records Act.
On July 31, 2024 we appealed the trial court’s ruling to the Tennessee Court of Appeals. We expect to win our appeal.
Earlier this year Michael Patrick Leahy vowed to continue to exercise his First Amendment rights after a judge threatened to hold him in contempt for publishing news stories on Audrey Hale’s manifesto.
Here’s @michaelpleahy after today’s hearing in Nashville, where a judge had threatened to hold him in contempt.
The judge appears to have backed off the threat, and Leahy says he’ll continue to exercise his First Amendment rights pic.twitter.com/SwLNHgIOlJ
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) June 17, 2024
