Journals of Columbine Killers Will Be Released to the Media

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting rampage on April 20, 1999, which ended with 12 students and a teacher dead, along with Harris and Klebold, who committed suicide after the killings. The case drew widespread media attention for months following the shootings, and deputies of the Jefferson County sheriff’s department seized journals kept by the two teens, along with a videotape the boys had made. The tape showed the gunmen talking about their hatred for most people, and they detailed their plans to attack the school and shoot people.

The parents of the two boys demanded that the records be kept private, fearing that the inflammatory material described in the journals of their sons might inspire other teens to commit copycat crimes. Sheriff Ted Mink agreed and supported the parents in their fight not to release the records to the media. But the Denver Post newspaper sued to force release of the material, saying the public had the right to know what led Harris and Klebold to carry out their horrific plans.

Last year the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the final decision would be in the hands of the sheriff. Mink deliberated about the issue for months, and Monday told reporters that he would agree to release nearly 1,000 pages of documents seized from the killers’ homes, but he will not release the video and audio tapes the two teenagers made. Mink said that he had asked the FBI to review the tapes to help him with his decision. The FBI concluded that the tapes "could serve as a strong motivating influence for other adolescents to commit/and or attempt to commit similar acts of violence. The tapes provide instructional material for how to successfully plan and implement similar acts."

The documents to be released include messages written in yearbooks by Klebold and Harris, but most of the documents are "largely irrelevant and innocuous, consisting mostly of school work," according to the filing by the sheriff’s department. Mink said that the decision to withhold the tapes would be an unpopular one, but he believes ie is necessary. "In truth, thousands of pages of documents and other evidence have been released over the years, and no one item has held the key" to lingering questions about the massacre, he said. "In my mind, no new insight the tapes might provide can justify the loss of just one life." According to Mink, the release of the documents could be delayed if the parents of the killers decide to appeal.

Attorneys for the sheriff’s department said that Mink was "unwilling to be an accomplice" by releasing tapes that he found "deeply disturbing." The filing explained, "The tapes are a manifesto authored by Harris and Klebold, in which the two call out to other adolescents to commit similar heinous acts. Their dying wish was that these tapes would be distributed and spread across the Internet."