Missy Jenkins Smith claims she has long since forgiven freshman Michael Carneal, who shot eight classmates at Heath High School in West Paducah 25 years ago, leaving her paralyzed from the chest. She published her memoir under “I Choose to be Happy.”
She will request that Carneal, 39, be sentenced to life in prison for killing three people and injuring five others at the school when he appears before the Kentucky Parole Board, which could parole him later this month.
She claims that to move on with her life, she had to forgive him, but doing so did not absolve him of the repercussions of his actions.
Kayce Steger, a 15-year-old sophomore, was slain by Carneal, and her mother, Sabrina Steger, said she would ask the parole board not to release him. She won’t even say his name. I refer to him as “the killer,” she stated.
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However, Hollan Holm, who was shot in the scalp by Carneal and who had no physical scars but went through emotional trauma for which he needed counseling, said he would ask the board to release him if he could be placed in a facility where he is watched over and continues to receive care.
Holm, a 14-year-old fellow freshman who rode the bus to elementary school with Carneal and sat next to him in the lunchroom, claimed he could not tell the difference between the shooter and the guy he knew.
Attorney and father of two, Holm, stated, “I don’t view him as the totality of what he did on the worst day of his life.” One of the first mass shootings at a school to occur in the US was at Heath High School and Car
neal is one of the few gunmen still alive today who is being considered for parole; the majority were murdered during their crimes or received life sentences.
Carneal, who admitted to the murder, attempted murder, and burglary despite being mentally ill, was given a life sentence. Still, due to his advanced age, he was eligible for parole consideration after serving 25 years. The parole board had three options for him: release, deferral for several years, or life in prison.
On September 19, the parole board will hear testimony from victims and family members via video, and Carneal will appear the following day.
Unlikely is Carneal’s immediate release. The parole board’s website claims that “public safety” is its “paramount concern.” And according to its most recent statistics, just 39% of prisoners saw the parole board for the first time after being convicted of offenses that were significantly less heinous than Carneal.
Carneal opted against being interviewed. By a plan created for him by the Department of Public Advocacy, his parents, who relocated from Paducah to Northern Kentucky, intend to take him to their residence in Cold Spring.
His father, attorney John Carneal, pleads for his release from the scheme, saying, “Please remember he was just 14 at the time of the offense.”
It claims that Carneal was experiencing hallucinations and delusions when he shot into a prayer circle in the lobby of the 500-student school with a. 22-caliber semi-automatic weapon he had stolen from a neighbor.
His current attorney, Alana Meyer, claims he was only identified as having paranoid schizophrenia after being locked up. She claims he has worked with mental health specialists for 25 years to find drugs that have stabilized him.
And according to his parents, they will transport him to neighborhood hospitals to continue his therapy. Keep an eye on us for more information like this, The Express.