LITTLE ROCK — The attorney general's office has been granted access to confidential documents in preparation for opposing Andrew Golden's appeal of his juvenile court convictions in the Westside school shootings when five people were slain.
Andrew's attorney did not oppose a motion filed with the state Supreme Court by Assistant Attorney General C. Joseph Cordi Jr. for access to psychological forensic examinations of Andrew. These documents contain six parts. The examinations were made by several experts, according to court documents.
The high court has agreed to hear oral arguments in the case, but no date has been set.
In granting the attorney general access to the records, the court did not open them to public view. Juvenile proceedings generally are closed to the public.
The confidential documents were filed this year under seal by Andrew's attorney, public defender Val Price of Jonesboro, when he filed an appeal on Andrew's behalf. He asked that the documents remain confidential unless the court grant permission for the attorney general's office to review them.
Andrew and Mitchell Johnson were 11 and 13 when they fired on students and teachers March 24, 1998, at Westside Middle School near Jonesboro. Four students and a teacher were killed, and 10 other people -- one teacher and nine children -- were wounded.
Andrew was adjudicated delinquent at trial in August 1998 of five counts of capital murder and 10 counts of first-degree battery for his role in the shootings. Johnson's adjudication of delinquency came in a plea to the court. The boys also face a civil lawsuit filed by families of the victims. Also named as defendants in the suits are the boys' parents, two gun manufacturers and Doug Golden, Andrew's grandfather. The lawsuit seeks punitive and compensatory damages and an order to prevent the two boys or their families from profiting from the shootings through the sale of books, movie deals or other entertainment ventures.
The boys also face federal juvenile proceedings as a result of the shootings. Speculation centers on federal charges being brought against them to ensure that the boys remain locked up after their 18th birthdays. That is the age when the state has had to release young offenders for lack of a holding facility.
But after an appearance in federal court Wednesday, a spokesman for the state Department of Human Services said the state now has a facility to hold youngsters until they're 21, the same maximum age when juvenile offenders can be held at the federal level.
The boys are in the custody of the Division of Youth Services and are being held at the Alexander Youth Services Center.
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