Thurston High School shooter Kip Kinkel seeking shorter sentence

[Nika]

It’s been nearly 15 years since Thurston High School student Kip Kinkel fatally shot his parents and two classmates and wounded 25 others.

Now Kinkel’s lawyer is asking a state judge to toss out his nearly 112-year sentence, based on a ruling last summer by the U.S. Supreme Court that dealt with mandatory life in prison without parole for juveniles.

Kinkel, now 30, was just 15 when the unthinkable hit home in Lane County on May 21, 1998. After killing his parents, William Kinkel, 59, and Faith Kinkel, 57, in their rural Springfield home the night before, he opened fire with a rifle in Thurston’s cafeteria the next morning.

His rampage claimed the lives of 17-year-old Mikael Nickolauson and 16-year-old Ben Walker. It also altered hundreds of other lives, from shooting victims and their families to students, staff and emergency workers who experienced the event.

Kinkel agreed to accept a plea deal to serve 25 years for the fatal shootings. However, a judge sentenced him in November 1999 to 111 years and eight months without the possibility of parole, factoring in time for attempted murder counts.

http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/29791788-75/kinkel-court-state-oregon-parole.html.csp

Eugene Springfield is an extremely liberal metro area, but I don't see Mr. Kinkle as rating a reduction in his sentence for these crimes.