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TJP
Aug-09-2007 05:43
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Thurston High Killer's New Trial Denied
Salem-News.comKinkel's attorney says he plans to appeal the case.
 Thurston High School killer Kip Kinkel left four people dead and 25 others wounded in 1998. He says he did not receive adequate mental competency evaluation before plea bargaining |
(SALEM, Ore.) - Kip Kinkel's request for a new trial was shot down Wednesday by a Marion County judge. Kinkel was convicted for the shooting at Thurston High School in 1998 and is serving out a 111 year sentence.
The Springfield Thurston High shooting in 1998 left two students dead and 25 wounded. Kinkel shot the students after murdering his parents at home. He was 15 at the time of the offenses.
Kinkel's contention that he was too mentally ill to adequately execute his plea agreement, brought no relief from the judge in Salem.
The AP reports that Kinkel believes that his original defense attorneys and the trial judge should have ordered a mental competency evaluation before going ahead with the plea bargain.
But a lawyer for the attorney general's office argued during a two-day hearing in June that
But state officials say Kinkel clearly understood what was happening, and they stress that he was sufficiently intelligent to calculate that his best chance to reduce his sentence was the plea deal.
Larry Matasar who is Kinkel's attorney, says he plans to appeal the case.
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Riley Rosenbaum September 5, 2007 9:03 pm (Pacific time)
The public needs to hear him. He might have done something terrible and unfathomable, but he was 15 and I think that there has been a lot of time for growth. They need to look at ALL of the facts and events leading up to the incident, not just as a 15 year old killing his parents. Locking a child up for prison is unimaginable to most, why are we different? Punish him still, but he needs another chance...
Deb August 11, 2007 1:45 pm (Pacific time)
He looks sorry to me... Maybe he learned something in the last 7 years, one would hope our tax $$'s were spent wisely. I think there should be an automatic trial when these juveniles reach 21. Nothing will bring back those who died, but maybe Kip should spend 111 hours with his victims, including affected family and friends. Then try him for moral competency. If he passess, maybe he'd make an outstanding member of society, a good example of a bad example, as it were.
Joel S. Salem, OR August 11, 2007 10:25 am (Pacific time)
It really reflects on us as a society when we sentence one of our kids to life in prison with no hope they could ever change. There are no standards in juvenile sentencing laws, in many states he would have been released automatically at 18 or 21. Oregon sells the image of a progressive state, yeah right.
Neal Feldman August 9, 2007 8:54 am (Pacific time)
This scumbag should rot away out of the public eye. I wish the reports about him would just be inconspicuous footnotes so that he will not get any more attention. He deserves none other than to keep him locked up until he is worm food. Then execute the worms.
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